grey hawk

December 7th, 2018

We come to a door which Pike deems safe and then opens. This kitchen has a number of tables and large skewers leaning against the hearth. There are food stuffs in the form of bread, grains, cheeses and water. There is a door on the north wall in a small alcove. Obregon tracks around and finds normal humanoid foot traffic while Sanna detects magic from the staff but sees nothing out of the ordinary. Pike checks the next door and it opens on to a pantry. This well organized room contains a variety of food stuffs which we plunder to replenish our supplies. We head back to the barracks area and continue around until we reach another hallway. We move down about 15’ until it turns to the south around which we see a door in a rounded portion of wall. Pike goes to work again and swiftly picks this locked door. The dome of this round chamber rises 30’ and the walls are black with streaks in it. The dome is capped by a silver sphere which shines a light down to the floor. There are 4 black doors set in the wall, along with a northern door that seems to be made of silver. Sanna checks and the whole room detects as magical and she determines this room allows you to telepathically communicate with others. Sanna then steps in and hears “What is it” and “Who are you” in her head. She replies and the voice says this is an unexpected contact, you must be an adventurer. She asks for its identity and it says it’s a benevolent spirit that has been locked in this room by the demons. It asks how we found it here and she gives the reader’s digest version of our excursion. The spirit is hopeful that we are here to free it from its captivity. It says there is a secret door near the northern entrance that leads to a stairway towards the east which would lead to his trappings in an area populated with either with gnolls or other creatures. Sanna uses the wand to detect secret doors as we head back north. We return to the entrance to this level without finding a secret door. We move around the area and finally come across a locked door we haven’t been through. Pike hears what sounds like a large creature moving around behind it. He quietly slips the lock and moves back so Gonoan can open the door. Inside this room is a large basilisk. Beltin manages to close his eyes in time and hits it with acid. Obregon and Sanna and Ignis all turn to stone. Gonoan also saves and hits it 3 times. The basilisk bites him in return. Brunj then turns to stone. Beltin misses but Gonoan hits it 3 more times. It bites him back. Beltin can’t connect with his eyes closed but Gonoan manages to slay it. We place our enstoned friends in the portable hole and make our way towards the exit. Our horses are waiting where we left them and even look cared for. We mount up and make our ways towards Seltaren, the nearest city. We arrive in Seltaren late in the day and ask directions to the mages guild. We knock and are escorted in to the parlor. The mage we see asks about us and asks for news from Greyhawk. We share some gossip and then ask for restoring our party members. They can do that but it will take 2 days to complete. We sell some items and take rooms at the best inn in town. We enter and seems they are still preparing the rooms. We go to eat while we wait. We hang out in town for a couple of days until the team has been reassembled. Beltin is a little disappointed in the lack of interest we have drawn. Finally everyone is refleshed and we tell them what happened. The next day we head back to the castle and make our way back down to where we left off. As Pike passes through the unopenable doors, he sees a small group of gnolls. They charge but can’t seem to touch him. He opens the doors and moves behind Gonoan. Beltin melts 3 of them and Obregon kills the 4th with a single force arrow. We head back towards the basilisks room and run in to Arnie the weaver on the first level and converse with him for a bit. We begin making our way back down when we come back to the room with the spear trap and it catches Beltin, hitting with 2 out of 6 spears. We move on down again and arrive at the room with the basilisk. We search the room and find nothing of interest. We continue searching the area for the secret door.

November 20th, 2018

We return to the torture chamber and go back to the south door. Pike checks the door and opens it unto a short hall to a T junction and the southern hall turns off diagonally. We move west around the room and check the next door. It opens to reveal a hall heading south which appears to open on to a larger area with a couple of doors along the way. The stench of a used barracks wafts from the open door and there is flickering light therein. We move to the last door in this room. It opens to another diagonal hall which quickly turns to the east. We head back to the hall to the southwest and at the end of the hall it opens on to an open area with 5 people in hammocks. Pike sneaks in to look around and it looks like they are equipped similarly to the seekers upstairs. It appears that this area could sleep up to 17. Pike approaches and nudges one awake while flashing the seekers ring. He is unable to get any useful information from the guy who eventually gets up and walks away. We move around the room easterly and the first passage obviously crosses the southern hall from the torture chamber. On the other side the hall opens up and ends in a cluttered chamber with dozens crates boxes and barrels. We go to the south which zig zags and eventually opens unto a room. This is covered with garbage of all sorts. Sanna checks for magic but finds none though Obregon finds tracks from the small demons moving through this area. We follow the tracks around a corner and on the wall is a partially blocked door. As we approach, we notice a metal case that hasn’t been destroyed. Pike checks it and opens it finding 3 potion bottles, and a small wooden box. In the wooden box is a set of bracers. Sanna attempts to identify them when out of the walls come several large emaciated hyena like creatures. Their fur is matted and falling out and a sickly yellow glow emanates through their skin. They move through the hallway and then the party. They pop out in the garbage room and are immediately hit by Beltin’s acid breath. Sanna moves out of the hall and accepts a bite from one before dropping an electric fireball on their heads. Gonoan rushes them, accepting a bite which causes ability drain and hitting in return as Pike shoots a bolt past his shoulder in to it as well. Both hits do less damage than expected. Brunj attempts to turn them but it fails. Obregon gets out of the hall and puts 2 arrows in the most hurt one, dropping it. Two of the creatures attack Gonoan, each biting him once. Ignis tosses a chain lightning, killing another. Beltin smacks one twice with his Morningstar while Sanna tosses an orb of cold which just misses. Pike misses with a bolt while Gonoan chops into it once, taking more ability drain. Brunj casts spiritual weapon at the last visible though it misses but Obregon kills it with 2 more arrows. The final one never reappears. Gonoan uses the heal pill he has been carrying forever to stop the sickness that has come over him. Sanna identifies the bracers as lesser archery and the potions as alchemist fire, bulls strength and locate object. We search the hall and find a short sword hilt set with 7 aquamarines, and a mw long sword. We move back down the hall to the door which Pike checks and it is locked. Pike makes short work of the lock before opening the door to an empty room with empty manacles hanging from the walls. We search and find trace of gnolls and some human footprints which lead to nowhere. We move back to the large room and find 3 more doors. The first opens to a long hall that turns to the east eventually. The next opens onto another long hallway which leads back to the stairs up. The last door reveals a short hallway that turns to the west. We opt to return to the barracks area and explore another passageway.

October 23, 2018

Ignus hits one with 3 rays, but fails to kill it. Three creatures attack Pike, hitting once. Another hits Gonoan once. Obregon hits one 3 times as Pike teleports behind them and shoots one in the back. Brunj casts a spiritual weapon on the hurt one, but misses. Beltin hits the injured one, finally dropping him. Gonoan swings at the one in front of Beltin, hitting twice. Sanna summons 2 air elementals and Ignus tries to hit one with a hold monster but it fizzles. The creatures start attacking, hitting Gonoan once. 2 miss Pike and 2 miss Beltin. Pike hits one with his sword and releases the magic missiles in to it. Obregon hits Beltin’s 4 times as Brunj’s spiritual weapon misses again. Beltin finishes his off and smacks another right between the eyes. Gonoan hits another twice as the air elementals whiff a bunch. Sanna hits one square with an electrical orb but it takes no damage. Ignus casts magic missile on Beltin’s. The 4 remaining creatures attack but only manage one hit on Gonoan. Pike activates the rod again, blinding everyone besides himself. Obregon fills Beltin’s with arrows causing it to drop. Brunj moves in and misses one as his spiritual weapon misses too. Beltin misses twice due to blindness but Gonoan manages to get one hit in on his. Sanna and Ignus start discussing what they can do. The three demons attack but can’t seem to connect. Obregon slays another as Brunj swings wildly. Beltin hits twice and Gonoan hits once more. Sanna kills one with an orb while the elementals flail uselessly. Both creatures attack Brunj again but miss. Pike scoops up his crossbow while Obregon finishes off one of the others. Brunj misses some more. Beltin hits the last one squarely and it sags to the ground. Ignus dispels the darkness and we begin to search the room. Suddenly A’anji says she can hear something coming our way so we scramble to meet whatever it is. Beltin moves up, spots them and covers them in acid. Ignus follows and drops a fireball on their heads. Pike keeps searching the room as Sanna moves up and uses cold arc lightning. Obregon moves and finishes off one with 2 arrows. Gonoan moves up as does the remaininng demon who misses him with a claw. Beltin smacks it twice, killing it. We return and finish searching the room, and find raw meat pieces and brains from some poor creatures but nothing of value. We return to the assassin’s bunk room and rest there.

September 25, 2018

Obregon starts tracking and finds the seekers came from the side and mostly from the northern area. We move around from where they came from and see a number a doors leading to different types of rooms. At the first door, Pike finds it locked. He picks it easily and opens it, revealing a medium sized room decorated with utilitarian furniture like a dorm room. Obregon starts searching the room as Pike looks towards the next door. There is some noise from down the hall and 2 more tyrg are coming at us. We begin to prepare and Sanna puts an acid fog in their way. We hear them change direction and can tell they have moved back towards the main hall. Brunj casts bless. We move to adjust to the new direction they are coming from. They pop out from the far hall and Beltin hits the first with acid. Ignis gets both with a fireball. Sanna catches the first with an orb, dropping it in its tracks. The second does its sonic howl but fails to affect us this time. An elven woman with a long bow appears from a corner further down accompanied by a tiger and shoots at Gonoan. Brunj moves all the way up and sends his spiritual weapon to hit the woman and Obregon then shoots her 6 times causing her to hit the ground. Beltin runs up to the tyrg and hits it once as Ignis moves and hits it with magic missiles. Sanna hits its twisted visage with a couple of orbs and its body sags to the ground. The tiger is trying to drag its master lady away. Sanna turns invisible and moves to the lady and attempts to see if she is alive. As she is trying, the tiger attacks her. Beltin moves to the woman while Ignis casts hold monster on the tiger. Sanna pours a cure light wounds potion down her throat. We strip her gear and find MW dagger, comp long bow, 40 arrows, studded leather mw, ring, amulet, cloak of elvenkind, gauntlets, quiver of ehlonna. Pike ties her up and Brunj wakes her up. We move the tiger to the barracks room. Pike shows her his seeker ring and assures her that her tiger is safe. Gonoan kicks her in the stomach and says that is for shooting at him. Pike apologizes and she says just because we got this far, doesn’t mean we belong here. They talk for a bit and she doesn’t understand why we are here and Pike feeds her his conspiracy theory about why we are here. She is the trainer for the tyrgs and pike offers to reimburse her. He tells her of the octych and she knows her master knows something of it but won’t take us to him. We decide to tie her up and leave her with the tiger. Sanna tells her to look us up if she is looking for a group to join. We lock her in and move on. The next door is locked and Pike picks and it opens onto a room with a silver painted wall and ruined furniture lying in a heap and moldy pillows in a pile along the wall and everything is covered in a layer of dust. Gonoan steps in and nothing happens. We search the room and find a secret door on the east wall. Pike figures out how to open it and opens to an identically sized room without the paint or debris. There is a slab that appears to be able to move to the other room and a stack of pillows which looks strangely nice and fluffy. We move back out to the next door, which Pike opens and it’s another silver painted room with another concealed silver room. We move to the next block and check those rooms out, We continue to find rooms that are all similar until we reach one through which we can smell the tyrg kennels. This area appears to be able to hold about 4 of the smaller tyrgs. We search the room but find nothing of interest. The next room looks to be a training room for the tyrgs. There are large chains attached to the wall, with practice dummies jutting up from the ground and some empty crates. On a shelf are 5 exquisite whips which we take. The next room is a sumptuous bed chamber. We search it and it definitely seems to be the trainer’s quarters. We find nothing of value. At the end of this row of chambers, is a large still pool of acrid bubbling fluid. The floor to the south is stained and pitted. Beltin moves up to the edge of the pool but doesn’t see anything else of interest.

October 9th, 2018

Obregon lets us know that no one gets very close to the pool of acid so we skirt it and move a little further east until it dead ends at a hall leading south. It goes a little way down and dead ends, so sanna pulls out the detect secret doors wand and finds a hidden door. Pike gets the door open and there is a south facing dark hallway that turns in to stairs going down. We head down said stairs and there is a low mound of refuse at the bottom with a 5’ tall violet mushroom growing out of it. We are discussing what to do about it when Beltin spits acid on it, destroying it. There is a tunnel going up to the northwest and one to the south. There are boot prints going both directions so we look south. The passage changes direction often and at weird angles. To the northwest we can see a couple of doors. We decide to check those out first. Pike picks the lock on the first and opens it revealing 3 hammocks, a table and chairs with knives and chains atop it and a padlocked foot locker on the floor and another door. There are 3 humans sitting at the table who appear surprised to see us. Beltin sprays the room with acid. Obregon moves over and shoots one twice, killing him. Pike shoots another twice, dropping him as well. Sanna finishes off the third with an orb. We search the room and take 5 MW daggers, a chain shirt of shadow silent moves, slippers of spider climbing, 2 potion bottles and 2 other daggers of venom off each. Pike opens the foot locker and finds a suit of chain mail +2, merciful nunchakus, ring of protection +1, cloak of resistance +1, scroll cure serious, and a scroll dimensional anchor. We open the other door and there is a short hall to another door. Pike checks and opens it to reveal on oddly shaped torture chamber complete with iron maiden, rack, cages and all other necessary accoutrement. There is a burly semi-conscious human male in one cage, a humanoid female in another and almost dead human male in a third. Sanna and Pike rush in to the room. Pike goes to the dying male’s cage and opens the lock and asks Brunj to heal him. He then opens the woman’s cage. Sanna believes the lady is a githyanki. Pike opens the last cage. Brunj uses the cure serious wand on each of them. The one that was almost dead starts gibbering and slobbering, obviously insane. Pike talks to the brute and he asks us to get him out of here and comments that we don’t look like we have been down here long. He doesn’t know the others that are in here with him. He volunteers to help us if we can get him out of here. Beltin starts talking with the githyanki lady whose name, A’anji. She came to our plane and was captured because she was weak and low on spells. She says this is a tough place to be, they are very powerful. There are four of other doors off this room, one of which is worse than this one according to the brute and could have demons. Another door may go to the torturers room. Beltin gives both the brute and the githyanki a bastard sword and a dagger. The brute gets the clothing from one of the assassins and leaves to make his way out. I’anji chooses to accompany us for now. There is movement behind one door. Pike opens the door to the “worst room”, turns invisible and starts heading down this zig zag hallway. At the same time, Gonoan goes to the south door and listens. Pike comes to a room covered with blood and viscera. A bunch of small demonic looking creatures are in this room and look towards where pike is lurking invisible. Gonoan doesn’t hear anything at the door so Beltin asks for Pike and we realize he went through the door to the worst room and we move off after him. Pike pulls out and activates the rod of wonder, causing the entire area to become dark. The creatures move towards him, but can’t seem to hit him. Beltin comes charging up and spits acid at them but they take very little damage. Gonoan charges and swings, hitting once. Sanna casts chain lighting, doing only a little damage to most of them. Damned demons

September 11th, 2018

There is a mournful howl coming from the south and we can hear something splashing through water. Pike hides as a horrid looking quadruped comes charging around the corner. Sanna casts web slowing it down but not stopping it. Obregon starts shooting and hits 4 times. Gonoan charges it and smacks it once as Beltin hits it, and him, with a line of acid. The creature collapses but now we hear something coming from the east. Ignis readies his bow. We ready for combat. Another of the same creatures comes creeping down the hall and Obregon hits it twice as Ignis shoots it once. As it approaches, it lets out an unearthly scream but doesn’t seem to affect us. Ignis hits it with 3 scorching rays. Obregon starts shooting and hits 5 times, dropping it in its tracks. We look over the carcasses and they seem to have been crossbred. Obregon does find another set of tracks from something even larger. We decide to track it off to the east. As we walk, we pass small hallways off to the north but stick with the beast’s tracks. A little ways down there is a tapestry on the south wall of a huge lifeless city with a great cupola jutting above the skyline. The sky crackles with lightning and a wolf like visage and a stern human profile pictured within. We continue on but can hear the sound of beings ahead readying for battle. Sanna calls out get ready, Sanna is coming. A larger version of the last 2 creatures begins squeezing down the hallway at us. Beltin spits a line of acid on it while Sanna tosses a lightning ball on top of it. The creature squeezes its way towards us and screams, stunning everyone but Beltin. Beltin swings twice, hitting once. The creature bites him in return. Obregon picks up his bow and shoots it twice. Pike tosses a lightning bolt down the hall, catching the Tyrg and 2 warriors coming up behind it. Ignis tosses a fireball, killing 2 warriors and injuring the rest of our foes. Beltin breathes acid again, hitting the creature and killing 2 more warriors. Sanna tosses another lightning ball, killing the last 2 warriors and damaging the tyrg. It bites Beltin again. Obregon shoots it, hitting 5 times and it collapses in a heap. We search the bodies and find they are members of the seekers. They are carrying MW bastard swords, MW light crossbows, +1 bucklers, +1 chainmail, amulets of natural armor +1, 2 potions (cure moderate) each, and a black surcoat with the seeker symbol. Why are there seekers down here and why attack us?

August 28th, 2018

Obregon moves up a bit and searches for tracks but finds none. Pike searches the pillar of the lithe man and Obregon the one of the nobleman. They find nothing of interest. We move towards the raised area. As we mount the stairs towards the dais, the warrior on the throne begins to move and appears to be an iron golem. It wields a crystal sword in its left hand and a whip of tightly woven feathers in its right. As it begins to animate, the seating begins to fill with all different sorts of creatures, approximately 60. Some are angelic or earthly while others are demonic or ethereal. Those of goodly intent shout encouragement to the party while those of evil shout trash talk at us. Beltin spits acid at while Obregon goes gatling gun on it, hitting twice. Ignis throws a lightning bolt at it which does no damage but slows it. Pike shoots 2 bolts at it but they both bounce off the iron body. Gonoan charges it and despite a tremendous swing, his axe slides off its greaves. Sanna hits it with an electric orb as it stands and spews a cloud of fire on Gonoan. Beltin moves around it as Obregon moves up a bit and hits 2 more times. Pike fires again but still can’t penetrate it. Ignis casts resistance on Obregon and Gonoan hits it one big time. The golem swings its whip at Beltin who dodges. Beltin gets in a good hit as Obregon hits it 3 times, destroying it. We try to take the weapons but they are bonded to the golem’s body. We begin searching the area and find nothing of interest. Brunj yells out that there is someone behind him and turns away. Beltin and Gonoan take off his direction with Gonoan arriving first to find a frail elderly man. Beltin learns that he is Arley the weaver and he made the curtains. He is looking for some missing items; tapestries and rugs and such. He has some things he could trade for them. He tells us that though he is the only one on this level there are seekers on the level below. He offers magic items for the return of his belongings and we say we will keep our eyes open for them. We finish our search of the dais and using the wand of detect secret doors find a secret door behind both statues. Pike checks one and gets it open revealing a narrow room with absolutely nothing in it. Using detect magic reveals nothing but we do discover that the other statues do appear to be constructs as well. Pike touches the foot of the wizard statue but nothing happens. Gonoan suggests using a rope and pulling them over but we convince him that it isn’t really necessary but we agree to let him know when it’s time. We head to the stairs down to the lower level. The stairs curl around to the south and end in a rough cave entrance. There is a large hall to the south and areas opening off both sides, part is cavernous but the rest has been worked. Dungeon delving anyone?

August 14th, 2018

Obregon tracks but they have been obfuscated but nothing appears to have traveled within 10 feet of the curtains. He then shoots the curtains with an arrow and it goes right through. Ignis casts detect magic and sees strong illusion magic behind the curtain. We decide to check the adjoining 2 rooms and the first one is lit by 4 everyburning torches and has a colorful pile of cloth swatches on a table. There is spinning wheel and loom with different types of material on one side and an oversized bed on the other. Ignis takes the comforter off the bed and we take the torches and put it in one of the portable holes. The next room contains 2 magically lit lamps and many beautiful tapestries (10) and 2 of them glow as magic. A 3’ x 8’ black velvet style with a naked female humanoid carcass depicted upon it with a sense of profanity coming from it. The second has several different types of magic on it and keeps changing as it is viewed. It shows as shadow conjuration and then changes again. The third is partially damaged and has a large brown stain obscuring the image. We take down all of the mundane tapestries and put them in the hole along with the lamps. The next room has 7 rows of shelves and drawers. These are neatly labeled but have been ransacked. The next room has a simple bed and dresser covered by a light layer of dust. The mattress has been slashed open and the dresser gone through. The last room has a 5’ wide marble pedestal, with several magnifying glasses handing around the pedestal. There is a human skeleton near the writing table next to the pedestal. Unlit torches are in each corner. There is an alabaster fertility idol under the body which was of a rogue based on the deteriorated gear. Upon further inspection, we find a brooch which is a brooch of shielding. We go back and thoroughly search each of the other rooms and find nothing else but do come across a cracked wooden mask in the pedestal room that we somehow missed the first time. The room with the shelves are labeled as: offering chamber west niches, offering chamber east niches, 1 each saying guest chamber a, b, c, d, e and exit chamber. We cut between the 2 sets of room and in to the north area and turn east. We go a little ways and come to the wall. To the south we can just see the curtain and to the north we can’t see far enough to the north wall. When we come to the north wall, we turn and come to a set of doors. Pike opens the door and though it seems to be a guest chamber but is empty and unused. We search the room and find a trapdoor in the floor. It opens on to a ladder going down about 30’ and Beltin floats down and lands in a passage that goes to the east. The passage ends in an empty chamber. This empty chamber has a door on the far end. We don’t find anything in this room and the door opens on to a set of stairs leading down. Suddenly spears come flying out of the wall behind us, hitting everyone but Pike and Beltin. Beltin uses his healing to remove the poison that was on the spear tips and a few potions later everyone is hale and hearty. Brunj points out that we may want to complete the first level before descending and we agree. We go back upstairs and continue down the north wall. Beltin opens the next door and this room has a man sized bronze statue equipped with a spear pointed towards the center of the room. In the middle is an old blood stain on the floor. Ignis detects magic and the blood has faint abjuration. We move on to the next room, and Beltin opens the door again revealing a sumptuously appointed bed chamber with a bed, dresser, desk and benches. Two of the walls have barely perceptible frescoes remaining on them. Detect magic reveals nothing. The next 4 rooms are about the same. The 5th has frescoes of servile women on furs around a fountain depicted with lava and a burning scaled hand reaching forth. The fountain appears to be identical to the one in the main room. The furnishings in here are in better condition than further east. The last room is in the best condition. We thoroughly search each room and can deduce the frescoes once showed a great arena with several rows of onlookers looking towards the center. The other is a stone throne at the top of 7 stairs and is empty. We go to the curtain and Sanna and Pike use mage hand to lift the curtain up so we can see under it. We see several pillars that look like different male figures with faerie fire on them which is lighting the area. The busts are all different and in different styles. Sanna believes they are male scions of Maurer, one is nobleman in robes, then a scowling warrior looking north, a scholarly man deep in thought, a lithe man in fashionable dress with a dreamy expression, a sneering regal man looking up as if above all others, and a beggar who looks off at an angle towards a stone throne up 7 steps with a large construct sitting in it with 2 other statues flanking the throne. We know there is illusion in here but we are unable to determine what is real and what isn’t’. Sanna pulls out the staff of the magi and slowly advances towards the curtain and nothing happens as she approaches and passes underneath. The rest of us join her but Brunj. I’ve got a bad feeling about this…

july 31st, 2018

Gonoan steps up and peeks through hole and sees another wall that matches the original stonework with a simple wooden door. Sanna looks at the symbols and the left one denotes magical danger and the one to the right is an open palm behind a bumblebee which denotes Bigby. Pike blinks and passes through the wall. He checks the area and finds no traps or other doors. The door is a normal dungeon door and doesn’t look to be locked. We discuss ways to get through the wall and Gonoan begins to chisel away at it. Sanna realizes she can use the staff of the magi to cast passwall so we do that. Beltin opens the door and it opens into an empty circular room with 9 shallow holes equally spaced along the periphery. Obregon checks the floor and no one has been in this room in ages. He steps in and immediately walks to the nearest hole and drops his bow and quiver inside. Beltin asks what the hell is he doing. He appears to be charmed so Beltin grabs him and pulls him out of the room. Sanna dispels the magic on him and he immediately calls his bow back to his hand. He begins rocking while sobbing on his bow. Ignis dispels the magic in the room and Sanna and Pike search it but find nothing else. We return to the room with the candles. Pike walks to the eastern door and as Gonoan enters the room, he causes one of the candles to go out. Most of us just stand and let Gonoan take care of it except for Sanna who hits it with an orb of force but doesn’t quite destroy it. Gonoan hits it once, causing it to disintegrate. Pike moves the eastern candle to the north door and then opens the eastern door revealing a long hallway with doors about every 15’ along the south and to the north it opens onto the large room we started in. So we try the first southern door and it opens on to a hall which turns west after a short ways. After the turn, it continues another 40’ or so and dead ends. There is a door on the north wall not quite at the end. Pike checks the door while Sanna attempts to find secret doors with the wand. There are no secret doors and the door is deemed safe. However the door is stuck so Gonoan and Beltin shove it open. This 10’ room is covered by chaotic ink scrawlings and is oddly free of dust. Ignis looks around and can tell that this has been penned by an insane scribe but with some time should be able to read it. Sanna and Ignis begin working together to translate and transcribe the writings which are obviously a complex and illogical magical theory. After a short while they lose track of the writing and give it up. We return to the hall with the many doors. In the first door, is a room lit with 2 everburning torches and containing a half dozen rugs on the floor and a door on the far wall. Ignis casts detect magic and a silk carpet with geometric patterns and a gold pin with the word Aelen sewn beside it glows. Ignis is able to identify it as a carpet of flying but the pin is unclear. There is a door opposite this one and it opens on to the large original room. In this area there are black satin curtains which bisect the large room. There are a number of ivory pillars in front of the curtains. There is also a purple faerie fire effect around the curtains lighting this area.

July 3rd 2018

And appears in a 20’ wide corridor that runs east and west. Silhouettes of humanoid shaped creatures are creeping along the walls towards him. They appear to be undead since they do not have a heat signature and are approximately 40’ away, coming from a large open chamber to the west. There is a pool of lightly glowing water on the far end of this chamber. On a raised stone surface in the pool is a large chalice glowing with a glistening aura. The south wall of the corridor has a couple of alcoves with doors. Pike looks at the doors he just passed through and sees handles on this side so he pulls them and the doors swing open easily. He then rushes to the closest door in an alcove. Gonoan steps in to the room and looks towards the undead and he feels a wave of evil pass over him. He charges and hits one with his axe. Obregon moves in and shoots the same one twice. Sanna steps out and tosses chain lightning, destroying the first one and damaging the rest. Beltin moves in to the room and spits acid, hitting 3 of them, though the damage is not as much as it should be. The creatures just stare at us and Sanna falls to the ground. Ignis runs out, takes one look at their hideousness and falls to the ground. Brunj steps up to Sanna and exclaims that she is dead. Pike searches the door for traps but finds none. Gonoan buries his axe in the chest of the one in front of him. Obregon uses arrow storm and kills all but one. Beltin averts his eyes and after moving up, takes a swing at the last undead but misses. It tries to catch Beltin’s gaze but fails and as it tries to move away, Beltin hits it doing just enough damage to take it out. Obregon runs over to Ignis and finds he is dead too. Pike uses the detect magic wand but gets no auras other than our magic items. We decide to check out the fountain and as we are moving we notice how immense this chamber really is. We see the aura go from glistening silver to green. Pike can tell that the chalice is magical but the water itself is not. It is amber in color and hazy which between the glow and the haze makes seeing the bottom impossible. Obregon can tell that the humans have moved around this area and some have even sat on the ledge. Beltin sticks his finger in the water and after a moment some grotesque looking gold fish come after his finger. As they reach his finger, the water feels like it is getting warmer and he yanks his finger out. He then jumps on the pedestal and climbs the 20’ and grabs the chalice. He jumps back down and the chalice continues to glow. We put some fresh water in the chalice and pour some down Ignis’s throat but nothing happens. So we try it with water from the pool but it doesn’t do anything either. As we decide what to do, Pike goes back to the door he searched and opens it. Behind this door is a round room with 4 doors and a lit candle in front of each. The doors are painted with reds, purples, and oranges and depict a fighter in a waiting stance as if for a charging enemy though none are apparent. He picks up the candle at the east door and holds it near the door but nothing changes. He waits for a moment and then his candle goes out. The fresco warrior comes to life and charges him. The fighter has a bastard sword, a shield and chain mail. Pike hits it with a lightning bolt and starts blinking. The warrior begins swinging but can’t connect. Pike relights the candle and puts it back. The fighter keeps swinging but can’t catch the elusive Halfling. Pike leaves the room but the fighter follows as Obregon arrives at the door to check on him. Obregon shoots it twice and it vanishes, reappearing on the door. As we go to pack the bodies away, they suddenly start awake. We can’t tell what happened but count our blessings. We go in to the room Pike just left and cause the candle to the west to go out. That warrior charges and Obregon starts filling it with force arrows and it poofs out, reappearing on its door. Pike opens the western door and there is hall heading west for 10’ and turns north. He spikes the door open and moves down the hall. After the turn, this corridor continues about 25’ and then turns to the west again with a door near the corner. Pike opens the door and it reveals a sharp odor of decomposition from this 20×20 stone chamber. The torchlight in this room sparkles off the sharp tines of metal sun symbols on each of the 4 walls. Pike knows these symbols are identical to those worn by seeker mercenaries. This must be the lair of the Bodaks so we search it but don’t find anything of value. We do grab the 4 everburning torches before we leave. We go around the corner and it opens back up in to the immense chamber. There is another hall leading to the north east which ends in a wall made from different stone from the rest. There are 2 arcane symbols carved in to the wall and there is a hammer and chisel on the floor and a fist sized hole in the wall through which is pure blackness. Back to the doors or check out the wall?

June 19th, 2018

Pike and Brunj go to see Kellick in his tower. The manservant opens the door and after a moment, allows them entrance. Pike says “Hey Kellick, we visited the ruins and broke them”. He asks how we did that so Pike tells him the tale. Kellick shares the details of the items we left with him: deck of many things, cursed lesser metagmagic rod of quicken, bag of devouring, crystal hypnosis ball, cursed headband of intellect +6, periapt of foul rotting, vacuous grimoire, belt of giant strength pink lace that emits erotic moaning, beserking sword, and a cursed backbiter spear. He mentions that the star shape of the gaming table from this room was interesting. Pike determines that it is the symbol of the seekers. Pike leaves the items with kellick until the party can decide what to do with them. The 21st of Sunsebb dawns clear and chilly. We go in search of the Arachnians to see if we can help with their goal of maintaining the balance in the region. They tell us that things seem peaceful and we succeeded in holding the evil forces at bay. She does believe that the people need to know more of what’s going on as there are going to be consequences to the ruins disappearing. Sanna shares the details of what happened in the god trap. They ask if they can share this info with Eritae and Beltin says she has already been informed. They don’t have anything specific we can do for them so we move on. Sanna and Ignis go to the mage’s guild where Sanna asks about Bronwin but they haven’t heard anything of her. Beltin and Obregon see Eritae and ask about any more information since last time. She hmms for a moment before telling us that it would be best if we were out of the city for now and using our skills elsewhere. That there are certain parties that are not real happy about cleaning up after the “children’s” messes. The church of Boccob especially feels we should make ourselves scarce and that we should follow the guidelines from Mordekainen. Point taken and we return to the rest of the party. We decide to begin by pursuing the lead near Mauer Castle. Obregon and Sanna go in to the statue library and do some research. Gonoan knows there are gnolls in the area and rumors of fiends nearby as well. House Mauer was founded by the acolytes of Slerotin and they ruled from the castle. Many adventurers have tried to infiltrate the castle but most have not returned. The seekers have been rumored to have been here and at least one of them has been in the castle. There was a party of adventurers, including demon-handed Tumerast, that had discovered a sloping passage under the castle and came upon a set of unopenable doors. There was an encounter there and Tumerast used a new grimoire, tome of the black heart, to see his way through. He set up camp and spent his time trying to dig down in to the lower levels. 25 years ago Mordekainen learned of this and took several companions to try with the key of portals and make their way through the doors. They slew Tumerast and his follower and looted much treasure. We gather our provisions, our horses and our sensibilities and begin our westward trek towards Castle Mauer. We travel for 9 days before coming to the area around the castle and encounter a huge wall of brambles which resembles a maze. We make our way around it via the road rather than dealing with them. The day is chilly and rainy with some light snow mixed in as we come in to sight of the castle. It is late morning and could become difficult terrain should the snow continue to accumulate over the next several hours. We get closer to the castle and find the sloping passageway that we believe ends at the unopenalbe doors. We make our way down this granite hall, and pass 2 dead gnolls on the way. Brunj can’t tell the cause of death, as there is nothing obvious. Obregon can tell that there have been humans and another type of creature which he can’t readily identify based on their tracks. Suddenly it clicks and he is positive that it is undead. We keep walking for almost 10 minutes where the passage t’s to a short hall to the north, which dead ends, and a longer one to the south. There is an 8 pointed star engraved on the floor and the end points are hollowed out as if something belongs there. Sanna steps in to the alcove to the north and uses the detect secret doors wand and finds nothing. She then puts the octych in the northernmost point of the star and it seems to fit in snugly. She then tries to pull it back out and it comes out freely. We try the octych in each spot to see if something different happens, but nothing. We move down the long hallway and finally it opens in to a small but grand room with large double doors on the other side. Each door is 4’ wide and the floor is scratched in front where others have tried to force them open. Obregon can tell that the humans and undead have passed through the door. We can’t see any obvious means of opening the doors. Sanna knocks on the door and no one answers. Gonoan kicks the door as pike moves out of the room and up the hall. Sanna holds the octych to the door and still nothing, which is what also happens when they try to push them open. Pike activates the blink ring and phases through the door…

June 5th, 2018

June 5, 2018
We are walking towards the walls of Greyhawk. As we enter the city, Gonoan splits off to head to the green dragon inn. Pike and Brunj veer off to report in to his various peeps. Sanna and Ignis are off to the mage’s guild with Elaine’s body. Beltin and Obregon are going home. Sanna and Ignis arrive at the Mage’s guild and meet with her old contact who tells her that Tenser is at the green dragon inn. She says she wants to report that Elaine was dead and to arrange funeral rites for her. She also shares our story up to the battle with Iggwilv but says the rest is just for Tenser. Elaine is laid out in a special room and the appropriate steps are begun. Beltin and Obregon arrive home and find the house unmolested. Obregon goes in while Beltin walks around until he finds one of the street kids. He finds a few, but they have nothing of interest to report; no sightings or anyone skulking near the house. We suddenly begin to hear a sound like we’ve never heard before. It sounds like a horn and then there are others that join it as well as loud voices. Beltin starts asking what the horns are for and ordering civilians off the street. One man recognizes Beltin and tells him the horns are an indication of a magic affect and they are to keep their eyes open for what it may be. Obregon joins Beltin and several members of the town militia in looking around. We come to a corner near the market and there is a large group of people gathered and some of the watch giving information. It seems something is coming from castle Greyhawk across the sky. Beltin and Obregon spider climb up a tall building and can see castle Greyhawk itself, floating in the sky, in what looks like some sort of bubble. It’s moving somewhat towards Greyhawk but won’t actually come over the city. The wagon and skeletal horses from the main foyer of the Tower of War are flying around its circumference, keeping things away. There appears to be some sort of energy connecting it to the earth but then it pulls away in to the sky and slowly disappears. Sanna drags Ignis along to the green dragon inn in an attempt to catch Tenser. When they arrive, they see Rikard talking to Capt Galanz (who we know is Bilarro). He walks past them on the way out and says have a nice day. Gonoan says Galanz told him everything. Sanna says didn’t you hear the horns? Castle greyhawk has floated away and disappeared. She tells him to meet back at the house and rushes up to Tenser, who is playing dragon chess. She tells him about our last battle and the castle ripping away from the ground. Tenser is nodding along when Ignis taps her on the shoulder and says that this isn’t Tenser, it’s just a figment. They go home. Gonoan tells us that Galanz says he had not been to the ruins and likes to hear the stories. Galanz says something went wrong in the castle but it didn’t make sense based on what we did. He doesn’t know of anyone who had delved in to the ruins as far as we had. We hear people yelling outside about losing their livelihood and that the ruins are gone. Then we hear a tap on the upstairs window and one of the spider women is there. We let her in and she tells us of the castle’s disappearance but they aren’t exactly sure what has happened to it. We fill her in on parts of what went on. They are trying to find out what this may all mean and what is needed to maintain balance in the region. We discuss our plans for the next day and get some much needed rest. The next day we head to Nulligan’s and the market to sell and buy our stuff. We do find the staff is worth 300k gp. Sanna keeps the staff and begins paying off the rest of us for it. We hit the potion shop and restock. Beltin and Obregon head over to the church of St Cuthbert. They are escorted to Eritae and she says there are a lot of things going on and wonders if we were involved. Beltin says maybe and shares everything that happened while we were in the ruins. She says that some people no longer even have memories of the ruins, as if it never existed. Certain landmarks have also disappeared from around the area. She says the church of Boccob likely knows more and just hasn’t shared with her. The ruling oligarchy has not met yet so there are some things that she can’t tell us at this time. She tells us that Mordekainen has pulled in his old allies and gone away and hasn’t been reachable. No one knows what he is up to and he has a reputation as a meddler and will work with anyone to maintain the balance he believes should be. Beltin asks about the ruling oligarchy and is told that they select new members based on need and they discuss what Beltin could bring to the table. We take our leave and head back home. Sanna goes to the mage’s guild again and finds that Tenser is still unavailable and Mordekainen hasn’t been seen in a while. She then stops by the church of Boccob and asks after the mages. The high priest says that they knew the castle leaving was inevitable according to the signs they read. If someone knew the castle well enough, they could likely teleport there. She asks about the creatures in the castle like the dwarves and kobolds but they don’t have any good info yet. When we reconvene, we decide to go out and investigate the site for ourselves. We head out the next morning to where the ruins used to be. We know there are a lot of adventurers heading out and setting up camps around. The gorge is gone and it now looks like just rolling, forested hills. We do see that Mordekainen is there and floating in mid-air. We call his name and he turns and nods at us. We gather near him and see many others that are debating moving nearer. Sanna shares the story of Iggwilv and the god trap. He seems terse and questions how we failed to take care of Bilarro. He worries that he will be causing strife and harm in other places. He tells us to stand down and leave Robillar to him unless he returns. The reason the castle was built here is a conjunction of ley lines and they should still be here. He doesn’t want them to be tapped by the wrong people. He tells us of a place that has a spot for an octych, he doesn’t know exactly what it does or how it works but may give us something to think about. It lies beyond the unopenable doors. Sanna has heard of a place around Maure castle and that the seul probably had a hand in making the octych and the sulatryn is a name associated with them. Now to plan our next move…

May 22, 2018

There are 3 large gingerbread men lumbering our way. Beltin moves up and spits acid at them but they don’t seem to be affected. Sanna moves in and casts a sculpted electric ball, hitting all of them but it also has no effect. Obregon starts shooting at the lead one and hits six times. Gonoan rushes one and hits it twice. Pike moves in and strikes the same one from behind, sticking his sword in the crease of its knee joint. Brunj casts bless and moves towards the fight. Ignis turns invisible and moves towards the party. The first two constructs attack Gonoan and each hit him once. The last one moves up and tries to slam Pike, who easily dodges. Beltin flanks the first one and smacks it twice with his Morningstar. Sanna casts arc lightning between golem one and two, which causes number 1 to crumble to cookie crumbs. Obregon starts shooting arrows, cracking number 2 apart and then putting a couple in to number 3 for fun. Pike turns and punches the last one with his gauntlets doing a little electric damage. Gonoan moves and hits the last one once. Brunj moves up and heals Gonoan with his wand. The final golem tries to slam Gonoan twice but only connects once. Ignis continues to move closer. Beltin moves up and swings twice, but it just glances off the constructs icing. Sanna tosses an orb of electricity, making blacken and crumble. We begin to make our way across the ravine but notice a gleam from the roof of the tower and when we look, it is an elaborate metal horse with a bearded man atop it who we recognize as Bilarro. He squints at us, focusing on Pike. “I never turn down a good challenge, is this a good challenge”? he says to Pike. Pike says it is a good one and Bilarro asks if it is him solo or your whole entourage? Pike says he is warming up to him since he said HIS entourage. Bilarro comments that he will accept his challenge at any arena he likes should he like to offer it in the future. “Does your party have a name”? “Company of the Shadow Phoenix”, Sanna replies and says we are going home. Bilarro jumps his horse to the next tower and then away in the direction of town. We start the long walk to Greyhawk not knowing Ignis is still following us. The ground is still shaking violently and we can hear explosions from underground. The whole ruins are moving and acting strangely as if weird magical affects are spreading outward. There are odd looking creatures being ejected and other strange creatures trying to get back in. As we walk along, we identify the magic items we looted from Iggwilv. Suddenly, an elven wizard type uncloaks behind us wearing very expensive robes. His eyes are 2 different colors, skin is bronze and hair is long and golden with some black streaks down the right side. Obregon spins and points an arrow in his face as Gonoan jumps on him. Beltin moves over and gets right in his face and growls intimidatingly. Sanna walks over and says talk! He says his name is Lord Ignis NIghtbreeze but you can call me Lord Nightbreeze. The party scoffs, each in their own way. He looks at Beltin and says dragon brother and shows him some golden scales on his shoulder. He says he is looking to atone for his sins and had heard of what we are trying to accomplish. We accept him provisionally and help him up. We make it back to Greyhawk safely and split the treasure and sell it off. We each pocket 39,714 gp in profit.

October 15th, 2017

Pike appears on a large platform in a 9 sided chamber with an immense gem stone jutting from each wall, each with 9 facets; some glow and some do not. The platform is the bottom of upside down pyramid with 9 bulges along the perimeter. In the center is a huge statue of Boccob with his hands outstretched, palms up. One of the bulges has 9 ghostly appendages, stretching towards one of the large gems, 5 of which hold beautiful women while the other four caress one of the gems. Power is pulsing from the gem through the tentacles and in to the 5 women. The ceiling is 50’ up and the floor is 50’ down. The tentacles are the same we saw drag Iuz under the floor previously. Pike notices a rune filled circle under his feet where he appeared and a similar circle on the other side of the platform. He then steps off the side of the platform and feather falls to the ground. Elaine is unable to push through the barrier. Obregon hits one of the golems once while Beltin hits the same one once. Sanna casts lightning bolt and hits both, but it has no effect. Gonoan swings thrice and destroys the one he is facing. The last golem swings at Gonoan, hitting twice. Obregon shoots it three times. Meanwhile, Pike walks around checking out the topography. Elaine is suddenly able to step through and off the circle, calling for Pike. One of the women shouts “too late” and another cries “can’t stop us now”. Sanna appears in the circle, steps off and begins checking out her surroundings and believes the gems contain the essences of gods that are being tapped for their power. Gonoan moves in to the mist. The Iggwilvs all cast mage armor upon themselves and we can see they each have a staff in their hands with combat gear, rings, amulet, bracers, circlet, a couple of ioun stones floating around their heads and boots. Pike tosses a grappling hook up to the platform. Elaine sees this but maintains her vigilance on the women. One of the tentacles smacks Elaine and she takes wisdom damage. Sanna casts a cone of cold, though 2 of them are totally unaffected. Gonoan heals himself. The Iggwilvs tells Sanna that they will try to keep her alive so they can make her an offer and one casts a spell. A gray beam springs forth from one of their eyes, hitting Sanna and dazing her. Brunj hits one with the rod of searing light. Beltin pushes through and spits acid hitting 4 of them. Pike climbs most of the way up the rope as Elaine attempts to hit one with magic missiles though it fizzles. One of the Iggwilvs casts a spell on Beltin and he disappears. Sanna casts arc lightning on 2 of them. 2 of the women are casting as the other 2 start speaking. Elaine gets hit by 2 beams, and is paralyzed. Brunj gets affected by their sweet voices. He starts to walk to the edge of the platform before he comes to himself again and then tries to hit one with the searing light though it fizzles this time. Pike climbs to the top of the platform and shoots the gem with a bolt but it merely bounces off. A tentacle tries to smack him but he manages to duck out of the way. Sanna tosses a lightning ball, hitting all 5 though they don’t seem to be as hurt as they should be. Gonoan pops through and drinks a healing potion. One of the iggwilvs tosses a lightning bolt at pike which he dodges but it hits and kills Elaine. Gonoan succumbs to the singing. Obregon casts his star spell. Brunj casts prayer. Pike hits one with a bolt but it seems just the fire damage is affecting it. One of them says it is time to destroy them, we just await Obregon and we must kill him immediately. One casts a spell at Sanna and she falls on the floor laughing uncontrollable. Pike is hit with a gray beam and is paralyzed. Obregon pops in and shoots each of them once. He also hits number four with one of his stars. One of them says no more of that to Obregon and tries to hit him with a disintegrate but misses. The most injured one transforms in to a large flying demon. Another cast’s darkness which covers the whole room. Obregon starts shooting arrows, killing 2 of them. One Iggwilv is casting a spell with no apparent affect. A tentacle swings at Gonoan but it misses. Gonoan tries to climb on one of the tentacles which doesn’t work so he jumps at one of them, trying to grab on but fails and plummets to the ground. The one he tried to hit transforms in to a large demon. Another hits Obregon with a beam, paralyzing him. Brunj moves back and casts obscuring mist around the party. Pike mentally asks how to free the gods and a voice says “young master, first you have to stop the user of this apparatus then use the key. Use the key in the hands of Boccob to take control of the apparatus”. So Pike turns invisible and climbs the statue. One of the Iggwilv’s casts a spell with no apparent effect. Gonoan moves to and begins to climb up the rope Pike had left dangling. The demon shaped one moves to near Obregon and attempts to remove his quiver. Obregon releases the rest of the stars floating around his head doing a barrage of damage to the demon crouched over him. Brunj casts Daylight, dispelling the darkness. Pike puts the key in the hand of Boccob and it melds in to the statue, he feels he now has mental control over one of the tentacles. He smacks the demon over Obregon with it. One of the others rises up higher on its tentacle. Gonoan finishes his climb and moves enough to swing at the demon next to Obregon. The demon takes Obregon’s quiver but takes another hit from Gonoan. Obregon begins to move again, releases the rest of his stars and grabs for his quiver. He can tell that the creature has been regenerating. Brunj cast dispel magic on Sanna’s laughter, causing it to quit. Pike smacks the demon for more wisdom damage. Iggwilv #1 tosses a fireball on to the platform but misjudges and only catches Sanna who dodges part of it and the rest of it is absorbed by her scarab. Sanna hits 1 and 2 with arc lightning, destroying #2 and hurting 1. Obregon shoots 4 arrows at 1, only 2 getting through but it’s enough to cause it to turn to ice and snow and begin to melt. Brunj casts searing light from the wand but it fizzles. Pike hits #5 with the tentacle while Sanna tosses a cold fireball at it, which doesn’t affect the creature. The last Iggwilv attempts to dispel the mist but fails. Obregon starts shooting, hitting 4 times. Brunj hits it with searing light. Pike hits it again with the tentacle. Sanna fails again to conjure a cold fireball. Iggwilv moves near Obregon and tosses a gray beam at him, paralyzing him. Brunj uses his wand again but it fizzles. Pike hits her with another tentacle and she falls comatose. Gonoan, goes to her, finds she is a shape shifter carrying nothing and chops its head off. The items that fell to the floor are a staff, wand, combat gear, bracers, ring, ring, boots, circlet, dusty rose ioun stone, pale green ioun stone, stone, pearl, 4 ointments, diamond dust x4, and misc jewelry. The gem shatters and iuz emerges as a feeble old man and the energy spikes and explodes upwards. Robillar and Zooken are released. Iuz glares at them and then us “watch your backs, heroes”, before disappearing. Robillar asks why is it so dark in here as he shakes with weakness. Zooken seems ageless and looks slightly disoriented, finally noticing us, and gives us a formal nod of acknowledgement before leaving. Beltin tells Robillar that Mordekainen is looking for him. He says he was adventuring and having a good time before getting grabbed by the tentacles. Pike challenges him and Robillar says he doesn’t want to fight in this crumbling room but looks forward to it later. He asks how we got here, stands on the circle for a moment and then vanishes. Sanna begins deciphering the runes in the floor so Beltin stands on the second circle and vanishes. Then Sanna, Brunj, Pike, Obregon and Gonoan follow suit. We make our way back through the dungeon, and emerge outside again where immediately a group of gingerbread men move to attack us. The curtain falls.

September 19th, 2017

Obregon shoots 6 more arrows at Beltin but can’t seem to connect. Pike sneaks around behind Obregon. Brunj runs up and attempts to grab Obregon while Sanna pulls out the detect magic wand and tries to find the succubus’s aura. There is nothing besides us that she can detect. Elaine looks around and moves next to Sanna. Beltin reaches down and heals some of Gonoan’s wisdom damage. Obregon hits Beltin once causing Beltin to exclaim “Mother Fucker”. Pike reaches out and snatches Obregon’s quiver and moves away. Brunj tries to grab Obregon again, but has his hands slapped away. Sanna picks up the dispel magic wand and tries to dispel the charm on Obregon. When that fails, Elaine takes it and tries as well. Gonoan gets up and runs to Obregon. Beltin follows suit and tries to grab him as well but fails. Obregon drops his bow and attempts to punch Beltin, connecting once doing no damamge but takes acid damage in return. Brunj looks around and realizes the demoness hasn’t been attacking and has probably left, then fails to grapple Obregon a third time. Sanna and Elaine both try dispelling the charm again but fail. Gonoan and Beltin try to grapple Obregon and miss yet again, slippery devil. The demoness reappears, looks around remarks that Obregon isn’t done yet. He says they took my weapons and she replies that she will get them back. Obregon punches Beltin’s armor futilely some more. Pike moves up behind a pillar, and Brunj misses another grapple. Sanna manages to finally dispel the charm and yells at Pike to return the quiver. Elaine casts dispel magic around the demoness, suppressing her shield, cloak and ring. Gonoan goes after her, but gets stopped by a barrier before he gets close. Beltin says fuck her, let’s leave and moves to the stairs out. The demon looks at Sanna, and says oh my new best friend. Brunj moves between Sanna and the rest of the party, saying we need to fight together or leave together. Pike moves up and steals her bag of wands successfully. Sanna climbs the wall as Elaine dispels the barrier. Gonoan steps up and smacks the demoness hard, twice. Beltin moves up and whiffs. The demoness hits Gonoan a bunch and he passes out again. Obregon opens up and with his belt of battle, hits her 6 times; the look of shock on her face as she is banished yet again is priceless. We heal up, collect the animated +1 shield and move on. Elaine says we should be our best selves before we go further and manages to dispel the charm on Sanna after a couple of tries. We manage to arrive at the 10’ tall pale violet metal doors with the carving of Castle Greyhawk on it. Pike touches Zagig’s key to the doors and they open inward. Behind is a highly polished room with 4 steps leading up to a metal archway with swirling mist writhing within. On either side of the room are 15’ crystal statues whose heads turn to look at us as we step across the threshold. Beltin covers one in acid and prepares his Morningstar to fight constructs. Pike, Elaine, and Sanna run through the room and disappear through the archway. Gonoan steps up and hits the other one once. He is then attacked in return, first by an intense beam of light which he sidesteps partially, then takes 2 slam attacks. The other one steps up, taking a hit from Beltin and hits Gonoan with the beam though he sidesteps it partially as well and takes another hit which deadens his axe temporarily. Obregon runs through, taking a hit on the way, followed by brunj. Beltin and Gonoan then make a break for it leaving these shits behind. To infinity and beyond…

September 5th, 2017

Obregon is sickened by the unholy blight. Beltin moves up to new guy, dodges a bite, and hits once; then teleports back to the door. Sanna tosses an orb of cold at xenomorph causing it to vanish. Brunj moves his spiritual weapon to new guy and moves back towards the door now that Gonoan is out of danger. Pike shoots new guy in the throat right before Obregon puts 2 arrows in it, causing it to vanish. We heal up and continue on to the strange metal doors. As we move in to the desecrated temple of Boccob, we hear wings fluttering on the opposite side of the room though we see nothing. Sanna moves in to the room behind a pillar while Gonoan peers around. Sanna casts dispel magic in the area where we heard the fluttering with no obvious effect. Elaine moves towards the front and looks around. Gonoan and Beltin move up and Beltin covers the other end of the room in acid but it seems nothing is hit. Gonoan then believes he hears something up the stairs and Obregon senses it behind him. Obregon melds in to the wall behind him and Pike freezes. Beltin moves across the room and says let’s get moving, nothing’s happening. Gonoan goes up the stairs but still sees nothing. Obregon moves out of the wall and is immediately under a spell from the demon version of Riann. He then moves down the stairs. Pike shoots at her twice but they both miss. Brunj moves up the stairs and casts a spell on his flail. Sanna moves on to the stairs and casts dispel magic on the succubus’s shield which drops to the ground. Elaine uses the magic missile wand but they fizzle as they hit it. Gonoan steps up and swings 4 times, hitting twice. Beltin comes running up the stairs until he is next to Gonoan. The demoness hits Gonoan with 4 stingers and he collapses from the poison. Obregon shoots 6 arrows at Beltin but they bounce off his shield and armor. Pike turns invisible and Brunj casts searing light which fizzles as it gets to her. Sanna casts an orb at her but misses. Beltin steps up and swings twice at her but misses as well. She reaches down and grabs her shield then disappears. Ugh, now what.

August 22nd, 2017

Pike pulls his sword and attacks Obregon, hitting him once. Sanna hauls back and punches Elaine with her spiked gauntlet. Obregon shoots Pike twice. Beltin teleports next to Obregon and bull rushes him but is unable to knock him over. Pike swings at Obregon 2 more times but only hits once. Sanna hits once on Elaine again. Gonoan grabs Sanna and keeps her from attacking anymore. Obregon shoots Pike 3 times. Elaine gets out of the way and attempts to charm Sanna while Brunj attempts to dispel the magic on Obregon. Neither attempt is successful. Beltin fails to grapple Obregon a second time but Pike manages to hit him with his sword. Sanna shakes off the rage, teleports next to Pike, and then pulls out and uses the wand of greater invisibility on him. Gonoan runs up to Obregon and grabs him. Obregon tries to eye gouge Gonoan but fails. Elaine waits and Brunj looks for an opening. Pike and Obregon manage to come out of it and we heal up. We head back towards the violet metal doors. Along the way we have to stop and re-open the locked door behind the landscape portraits which takes a couple of tries. We make it to the teleporter room and Pike is able to operate it again. As we move in to the arena like chamber, there are 3 demons present again. Beltin steps in and hits one of them with acid and Pike begins to blink. Gonoan moves around toward xenomorph. Sanna casts a cold burst on 4 arms and Xenomorph, though only 4 arms is affected. 4 arms begins casting a spell, though nothing happens. Xenomorph attempts to cast a spell as well with the same effect. Brunj hits all 3 with a flame strike. Obregon shoots at 4 arms, hitting 4 times. Elaine attempts to use the magic missile wand on 4 arms but it fizzles. Gator begins casting and another demon appears. Beltin moves up and smacks the new one with his Morningstar. Gonaon goes after Xenomorph, taking a bite on the way, but hitting it hard. Pike hits it with a bolt while its distracted followed by Sanna casting arc lighting on 4 arms and gator. 4 arms moves towards Beltin and casts a spell on him which looks frightening but has no apparent effect. Xenomorph attacks Gonoan with 2 claws and a bite, hitting with all 3 but fails to grab him. Obregon hits 4 arms 2 times, causing him to disappear and then Xenomorph 3 times. Elaine casts magic missile and hits Gator with 4 missiles. Gator comes around and tries to hit Beltin but it glances of his shield. Beltin sprays New guy and gator with acid, then moves back to the doors. Pike tosses the fist of emirikol at new guy but nothing happens. Gonoan succumbs to the stench of Xenomorph and begins to retch. Sanna casts another arc lightning on new guy and gator. Xenomorph attacks Gonoan again, hitting 3 times. Brunj moves towards xenomorph and casts spiritual weapon which dissipates when it hits. Obregon hits gator twice and it disappears and then puts 3 more in to xenomorph. New guy casts unholy blight around the doors. Damn demons!

August 15th, 2017

We wake Elaine up and she is back to normal, though she is disoriented and confused about what happened. We walk through the demon shaped hole and down a path which continues to be shaped like a demon. After walking for quite a while, we eventually see a light at the end of the tunnel The evil is palpable and we notice everything is covered in a layer of fine dust. Obregon searches for tracks but finds none. The cavern opens at the base of a cliff, a mile high and wide, onto a dusty canyon floor with another cliff wall in the distance which appears to be impossibly high and miles away. The area is lit as if under a noon sun though the sky is pitch black. The key begins to tug Pike towards the cliff in the distance. Beyond the canyon we see poisonous seas, lakes of bile, mountain ranges and what appear to be scabs over unhealing wounds in the ground. We are moving through the scabs and as we approach the cliff, we can tell it’s about 800’ high. The key is pointing up the wall so we spider climb to the top. Up top there is a structure in the center of large ledge. It is a pyramid of redstone with a flat top. This pectagonal structure has a wide staircase leading up one side, each of the other 4 are arcing towers that look like ribs and in the center of the tips is a large black heart still beating as if alive. There are several tents around the base of the pyramid. We head towards the pyramid and can see threads of ichor flowing from rents in the side of the heart before plunging to a pool on top of the pyramid. 5 channels siphon the ichor into smaller pools around the pyramids base. The air smells like iron and rotting flowers. There is a bipedal tiger atop the pyramid with 6 humanoids arrayed in a semicircle around the base. The tiger shouts out and the humanoids grab bottles from their belts and drink them. 2 run to the top to guard the tiger and the others begin to fly. Beltin runs up and spits acid at the 3 on the pyramid, killing the 2 guards while Sanna tosses a cold lightning bolt through all of them killing 3 cultists, though the tiger seems immune. Obregon finishes off the final cultist and puts an arrow in to the tiger. Pike walks closer and says “you can surrender now, all your people are dead”. Gonoan charges the tiger and swings mightily but his axe is brushed aside due to what appears to be a large magical shield he can’t see. Brunj charges as well and also misses. The tiger runs away towards the back of the cavern. Beltin begins to chase him as Sanna moves up and takes a closer look at the heart. It appears to be beating, the pool of ichor looks to be a foot deep, and she asks Pike if the key is pointing at the heart. Obregon moves to the top of the pyramid. Pike runs up the side and touches the key to the heart and nothing happens. Gonoan chases the tiger as well and catches up to him. Elaine moves up to join Sanna and Brunj joins Gonoan. The tiger steps back and casts a spell which has no visible effect. Beltin moves up and around the tiger to flank him, dodging a claw in the process. Obregon puts a couple of arrows in the heart. Pike can tell the key is pulling him in the direction of the cavern so begins to move that way along with Sanna and Elaine. Gonoan starts swinging at the beast, hitting twice, crushing it’s chest in. Brunj notices movement in the large tent. Beltin turns and smashes one of the tent poles causing it to sag a bit. Sanna creates a flaming sphere and starts burning the tent. Gonoan moves next to the flap and knocks out another pole. Brunj gets ready to attack anyone who exits. Beltin knocks out another pole and the whole front collapses. Pike feels the key tugging behind him now and calls out to the rest of us. Sanna ducks in to one of the other tents and sees just bedrolls and personal effects. Obregon moves back up next to Pike on the pyramid and they are quickly joined by Gonoan. Out of nowhere, a large exotic creature appears near Obregon but does not attack. Beltin moves back and readies himself while Obregon moves away from the elephant. Pike follows the key and moves on to the top of the pyramid and believes the shard is slightly above him. Sanna searches the tent but finds nothing of interest. Gonoan attacks and slaughters the elephant while Pike shouts “NOOOOOOOOO”. Brunj casts invisibility purge and we can now see a chaotic looking wizard hanging in the air above Pike. Zagig points a wand at Obregon and a large hemisphere of darkness appears around him. He cackles and exclaims “I overdid it” and then casts magic missiles at Gonoan. Beltin hits him with a line of acid and then moves up the pyramid. Obregon hastens himself, moves out from the darkness and hits him with 4 arrows. His body plummets to the earth with a splat. We loot the bodies and find the shard, a rod of wonder, combat gear, wand of stoneskin 22charges, mw dagger, amulet of nat armor+1, ring of prot 1, a statuette 3000gp, breastplate1×6, MW long swordx6, mw comp longbow 3str x6, comp long bow1 seeking, gloves of arrow snaring, ring of prot +2. Pike pushes this new shard in to Zagig’s key and it gets smaller and looks wavy. After searching this area, we get the impression that they have been trying to raise a long imprisoned demon without success. We detect magic and identify the items we have found. As we leave, Sanna, Obregon, and Pike are overcome by the rage in the entry room. This is gonna hurt!

July 25th, 2017

Sanna touches one of the large spheres and is pulled inside. She quiets her mind and sees a fist sized pyramid of obsidian sitting on top of an adamantine pedestal. She is expelled and grabs Elaine and Pike and says think up. Nothing happens. Small spheres try to attack Obregon, Gonoan and Brunj, only hitting Brunj. Gonoan attempts to hit one with his axe but it passes right through. Obregon shoots one with a force arrow but it also passes through. Beltin spits acid with the same result. Pike attempts to get a feeling from the key but gets nothing. From the corner of his eye, he spots an orb that appears to be filled with roiling paint and color but it quickly darts away. He thinks himself after it and calls follow me. As they zip along, Sanna realizes that her vision is of Zagigs key, though maybe a slighter older version. Brunj recommends interacting with a large orb and volunteers to try it. He attempts to talk to it with no visible result and then touches it and is pulled inside. He is expelled after a short while and says he saw letters of fire spelling “Zarn’s the way out”. Beltin yells out Zarn as if calling him and disappears. Obregon and Gonoan share a shocked glance and call out Zarn almost in unison, and also disappear. The other group loses sight of the painted orb and so Pike concentrates on the key again and once again it appears and then darts away. Pike continues concentrating eventually being able to keep it in sight and they follow it. As they get a little closer, they are able to see there are 6 smaller motes of light around the sphere. Suddenly, the motes move in to attack formation. Pike turns invisible, while Elaine and Sanna attempt to use wands but neither of them will activate. 3 small orbs attack each Elaine and Sanna, both getting hit twice. When an orb hits, it disappears. Pike tries to shoot the big orb with his crossbow but it passes right through. Elaine wills herself ahead and touches the painted orb and is pulled inside. Sanna also tries to touch it but can’t quite catch it. The 2 remaining motes attempt to hit Pike and Sanna but miss. Pike touches the globe and gets sucked in. Sanna attempts the touch it again and gets sucked in this time. Pike is facing a strange duplicate of himself made of running paint and colors; it is identical down to his gear and wounds. It immediately turns invisible and says “how will you look like me while I am invisible”. Pike hears him move around him, shoots him with a bolt and then turns invisible as well. Peki shoots him in return. Pike tosses the fist of emirikol, hitting Peki and causing him to be sickened. He notices the key is tugging towards Peki. Peki in return, shoots at him again, hitting once. Pike shoots him back twice. Peki then hits him with the fist, dazing him. Peki attempts to steal zagigs key but fails and Pike sees him. Pike shoots Peki again, killing him, and watches him melt away, revealing a shard. As he grabs it, the entire party appears on the beach together by the double doors. Meanwhile, the other part of the party had appeared 30’ from the base of the pyramid. As they wander closer, suddenly, 4 watery humanoid shapes come out of the pool and move to attack. Beltin spits acid at them. Obregon hits one 4 times and it explodes. He hits another twice while Gonoan charges a third and hits it. Number 2 attempts to envelop Gonoan, covering him and both disappear. Another does the same Beltin . The last attempts to hit Obregon but fails. Beltin and Gonoan find themselves floating in the nothingness again. Very shortly thereafter, we all appear on the beach. We move out of this area and back in to the octagonal room. Pike puts the new shard together with Zagigs key and they meld together. Sanna notices it now is almost identical to her vision. We find our fire crystals are almost depleted so we head out to the fire crystal cave and wait for the crystals to regenerate. We take all eleven new ones and go back down. We lock ourselves in to the library adjacent to the rainbow room and awaken on the 12th of Sunsebb. When we wake, Brunj cures the rest of everyone’s ability damage. We decide to head to the room with the demon shaped hole in the wall. This room feels filled with rage and Elaine succumbs, attacking Pike with magic missiles so we subdue her quickly before she can do any more damage. Pike feels the key pulling towards the hole in the wall and it’s likely entrance to hell. Crap!

July 14th, 2017

Beltin manages to push through the barrier and up to the dais. He swings at the queen and though it felt like he hit, nothing happens. Obregon moves up and casts a spell, causing a number of stars to appear floating around his head. Gonoan tries to push through but just can’t seem to move forward. Sanna attempts to use the dispel magic wand against the barrier but it doesn’t work. The queen begins waving her flower wand and a flame strike falls on Gonoan and Beltin. Pike turns invisible. Elaine pulls out the magic missile wand. Brunj moves up and pushes through the barrier without difficulty. Beltin sprays the dais with acid but doesn’t seem to hit anything. Obregon readies to shoot while Gonoan moves up and is surprised as he doesn’t hit any resistance this time. Pike feels the key tug up and to the right. Sanna casts dispel magic in to that corner but nothing happens. The queen calls down flame on us again to which Beltin shouts “Dispel the queen, sanna”. The key begins pulling as if whatever its following is now moving. Beltin bolts to the front doors and stands guard, and Obregon and Gonoan follow. Sanna manages to dispel the queen and poses like a super hero. She tries to detect secret doors but nothing shows despite expecting to. Her and Pike begin looking behind things on the wall until they find a door behind the thrones. Pike opens it and we see a robing chamber with another throne, which is empty, with another door behind it. We open that on to an empty room with double doors and a single door leading out. Obregon begins tracking and can tell a woman has gone through here and through the single door. This opens on to a hallway with multiple doors and a stair leading into a tower. The tracks continue up the stairs so we go on. As we move, guard tracks begin to appear as well. Up a level we come upon a storage/attic area. The key is now pointing fairly level as if we are now on the same level as whatever it is tracking. The queen’s tracks lead further back in this area and may now be hiding. Elaine casts detect magic around the room and it appears she is behind some clothing racks and luggage. Obregon calls out for her to come out but she does not. Beltin steps up to her and orders her out and that she won’t be harmed if she does. She warns that if we harm her, it will go badly for us and comes out. She and Beltin talk about why she attacked us, though she ignores anyone else who tries to chime in. Beltin begins to tell her about Iggwilv and such but she says we need to be in the audience chamber if she is going to hear a story. We follow her down to her audience chamber and Beltin tells her about the company of 7 and Iggwilv and the demons and shards. She says that Lyndurm came to the palace seeking protection and she thought she recognized him but not quite and that she locked the other doors in the palace to keep him from wandering. We introduce each other and she says she is the queen of coreland. She says Lyndurm is under her protection and we can ask him for the shard but as long as he is in the castle we cannot take any action against him. She doesn’t know exactly where he is right now. She tells us we can look for him but not to harm him. She summons a maid to lead us to his chamber but we decide to follow the key instead. It leads us through a few hallways in to a largish room with a few columns and another door to the left. The key is pointing toward one corner. Gonoan runs over and stands in front of the other door. Someone speaks from behind a column saying none of the rest of you better enter, or I’ll start shootin. Sanna tells him we really outnumber him and he asks what we want. We tell him the shard and he says we can’t have it. Beltin moves up on the other side of the column and Sanna moves in to the room as well. Beltin steps up and tells him to give us the shard and he will not be harmed. Pike turns invisible and moves in as well. Gonoan charges him and grapples him, calling to the rest of us to come take the shard from him. Lyndurm attmempts to cast a spell but is interrupted and killed by a cold lightning bolt, acid breath and 5 arrows. We then loot the body and find a fist sized black stone (which the key is pointing to), a dagger, an odd looking crossbow, strangely shaped bullets (28), spoon, headband, gloves, and statuette. We put the body in the portable hole and exit the castle. We head back to the path we came in on. It seems the path has changed and has become maze-like. Obregon stops a leopard with square spots and asks for the exit but is told it is somewhere near the castle and if we follow the paths we will get home. “All paths lead home eventually”. We keep walking and the path leads in to a dark area. The trees down this way become more organized and wall like, with our original clothes and gear lying on the ground ahead of us. Our dolls gear vanishes as we return to normal size and find the new items we picked up are with our stuff. We come back out in to the octagonal room and head to the double doors that lead to the beach. We move down the beach to the outrigger boats and attempt to fit the whole party between the two but we are too crowded. We decide to send Gonoan out with a rope about 50’ when he suddenly fades from view including the rope we were holding. Shortly thereafter, the boat reappears, so Pike, Sanna Elaine and Brunj take the 2 boats out, suddenly find themselves on a vast ocean and spot Gonoan nearby. Beltin and Obregon take a boat when they reappear and join up. There is an island in the distance and Zagigs key starts pointing towards it. This mountain has belching volcanoes, thick jungle covering the mountain slopes and steep cliffs which climb directly from the sea. As we get closer we begin to notice strange forms in the water around and below us. Then there is a fog around us and when it clears we are much closer to the island than we were. This happens again and we are closer again, now near some reefs. Once again the fog billows around us and now we are amongst the rocky reefs and near a rocky beach at the base of the cliffs. There is a hole in the cliff wall with a stream coming out of it down the beach. Unable to control the boats, Gonoan jumps in and swim to shore with a little difficulty. The rest of us crash on the rocks and end up in the water. Gonoan helps Sanna and Elaine and the rest of us make the shoreline by aiding one another but our boats are history. Nearby is a cantankerous dire ape tearing chunks from a large water creature. The stream is coming from a 20’ high cave directly behind it. The ape pauses, sniffs, beats its chest and roars a challenge. Beltin spits acid at it while Sanna tosses an orb of electricity. Obregon turns it in to a pin cushion but somehow it still lives. Brunj hits it with an arrow while it moves towards Beltin, swinging its dinosaur jawbone club. It misses as Beltin rolls under his attack. Elaine hits it with magic missiles while Gonoan charges it. He accepts a hit from the bone club which causes him to miss. Beltin hits him twice with his morning star as Sanna fells him with a scorching ray. We head through the tunnel in the cliff which begins to climb upwards. Other tunnels open up along the way as we move but we continue to follow the key. We hear strange creature noises throughout this area though we have not encountered anything. The tunnel finally opens on to the base of a jagged mountain slope. Directly below us is a circular savannah several miles across. The rest of the isle is a dense jungle with a dark lake in the middle. We continue where the key is leading. We walk quite a ways and begin to see the top of a pyramid. We seem to be heading there and come upon a glittering low pyramidal structure. A flight of stairs runs up the side to its flat top with a pool of clear water on top. This is a strange purple metal similar to the octych with runes covering its surface. There is a line of runes in draconic along the side of the pool which says “ye, who have fought the dormant king enter my knowledge Zagyg”. As we approach the pyramid, the pool begins to churn and a huge lizard creature with razor sharp teeth comes bursting from the water. Beltin spits acid at it while pike runs up the stairs to the pool. Sanna casts disintegrate but it fizzles as it hits. Gonoan readies himself as Obregon shoots at it, hitting 5 times. The tyrannosaurus rex bites Pike and Brunj goes running to try and help. Beltin moves up on to the stairs as Pike jumps in to the pool and disappears. Sanna tosses another spell that again fizzles as it arrives. Gonoan moves to the top of the stairs and the creature steps forward and bites him. Brunj shoots it with an arrow as Beltin teleports next to the monster and hits it twice. Pike finds himself floating in a vast nothingness with small fast moving orbs of light, large slow moving orbs of light and clouds of sparkling mist swirling around both near and far. The key is now dormant and he attempts to touch a point of light but fails even though it seemed the light attempted to touch him as well. Sanna targets the T-rex with dispel magic but it doesn’t seem to affect it. She then races up the stairs and jumps in the pool, while accepting a hit from the monster. Gonoan steps up and begins whaling on it, slicing its abdomen open 4 times and it collapses in to the water as its innards spill out, disappearing. The rest of us jump in to the pool and are falling through space in the vast nothingness. We can see each other but can’t see the others who preceded us. Pike continues to float and attempt to touch one of the spheres. Obregon notices a sphere moving really fast and then slowing and then coming right at him but it misses. A sphere comes at Sanna, hitting and her brain feels a little sluggish and it fills her with an overwhelming sensation of despair. The same happens to Gonoan and he is filled with mirth. Another attempts to hit Beltin but misses. Sanna thinks herself to a large slow moving sphere and touches it, and is sucked inside. She tries to understand the idea contained therein but is unsuccessful and she is expelled back in to space. Beltin thinks himself to a cloud and as he touches it he feels a sense of carelessness but from a distance. Obregon enters the cloud and feels a distant sense of curiousity. Sanna can tell we are in another plane and that the spheres and clouds are not sentient but must be controlled to try and hit us. She also knows that the larger orbs have information but it’s not clear what the small ones do. A small orb attacks Pike and Gonoan again. They are both filled with an insatiable curiousity. Pike attempts to thinks himself to Greyhawk but is unsuccessful. The key begins to indicate a certain direction which he follows and approaches Sanna and the shard she is carrying. Pike wants to touch the key to the shard which immediately absorbs it.It becomes one with the shard becoming an odd shape on the side of it and the whole key shrinks a little. How in the heavens do we get out of here?

July 11th, 2017

Pike attempts to blindly use the doors as a magic item but nothing happens. Elaine suggests we may need to assemble something from the shards. Gonoan believes it is a super hard metal that was forged or magically created all at one time. Sanna and Elaine sit down and begin reviewing all of the notes we have accumulated. We learn that most of what Iggwilv has comes from the level below where Shinda is imprisoned. She is trying to become more powerful but cannot grow as adventurers do. She also has a plant called obliviax which can steal memories. Sanna believes we are still on our home plane. We decide we need to rest and obtain new fire crystals before proceeding further. Then we will go back to the level below Shinda and finish exploring. We begin to make our way out and teleport back in to the nexus chamber, and then head up to the chamber with Shinda. We rest there for the evening. We go back up through the ziggurat and get the new fire crystals. We head back down and Pike takes another chance at opening Shinda’s cage which somehow works; she appears outside and becomes full size. She is ecstatic and hugs Pike. She tells us that despite the urgent situation her priority is her estate but will use any of her spells and spell-like abilities on our behalf. We ask if she will translate the runes tables so we head down and she says they indicate the vault of creation, tower of zagig, zagigs prison, and crypts of the forgotten. As she is leaving, she says that we will see her again when all of this is settled.We then head towards the hallway that said “do not enter”. We pass by the display cases and each take our dolls out, then feeling the sense of completeness and foreboding. Pike puts his in his pouch without touching it. Gonoan opens the door that says Go Back and sees “It’s not too late” on the northern wall. This hall seems to go on forever but after about 20’ the walls seem to become tree trunks instead of stone. Along the ground are what appear to be a couple of playing cards kind of twirling as if in a light wind. We move down the hall and as we get closer the playing cards start to move away. We are able to tell that they are actually little creatures shaped like playing cards. Obregon notices that there are no natural sounds and suddenly the hall is gone behind us. We are physically unable to move backwards and our gear is growing larger as we move ahead. Obregon moves up ahead of the party until he is the same size as his doll, takes the gear off of it and puts it on. All of what he had is there and functional so the rest of us follow suit. We move further on and the forest starts to sound more normal and the card creatures are gone. Obregon notices that the sounds aren’t quite right. Sanna digs deep in her knowledge to determine we are on another plane and knows that it has normal gravity, a finite size, and impeded travel so we should stay on the path. A flower says good morning to Sanna who replies. Obregon asks it where the exit is and it responds that there is no exit. In the distance it appears the path becomes a maze. There are some odd creatures as well which look a little familiar but not quite right. Zagigs key begins pulling Pike and we decide to follow its suggestion. After a while we come to a clearing with a 3 story white marble palace made with alternating white and red slabs. The card creatures are peaking from the palace doors and disappear inside when they see us. Off to the side is a strange looking snake creature wearing spectacles which has obviously eaten something as it is thick in the middle. It asks if we have a spell book, as it needs spells to escape. It claims to have eaten a pepper shaker. It says we haven’t been here long enough but wonders what we will turn in to. It then slithers off and the key pulls us towards to the palace doors. The cards are beginning to close the doors and Beltin and Gonoan charge the doors causing them to flee. When we get in, we see a large room with alternating rose and white blocks. To the north and south are double doors emblazoned with red hearts. The west has two sets of stairs going up and between is a set of stairs going down to double doors which stand ajar. Through the doors can be heard a shrill voice arguing with others. “My husband is not here, he is out hunting the bandysnitch and won’t be back for a while. You are supposed to protect us, sweetie”. We head to the open doors and this is obviously a royal court. On the far end are red thrones, one of which is occupied by a striking noble woman. In front of here are 6 square shaped humanoids. Beltin calls out “Greetings your highness”. She points her rod at us and asks “Are these the ones that vex you so, Lindurm”. A male voice comes from the air beside her saying yes. She cries out, “very well, Guards! Off with their heads”. Beltin runs up and sprays them all with acid, though the queen seems unaffected. Obregon begins firing off arrows at the guards, killing 2. Gonoan charges one and cuts it in half. Sanna drops a fireball on them, killing 2 more leaving just one. The queen appears to take no damage from this either. Pike takes a shot at the queen but it appears to pass through her. Elaine shoots the last card guard, killing it. We hear a clicking noise followed by an explosion and something goes whipping by Obregon but doesn’t hit him. Beltin moves towards the dais and is stopped by an invisible barrier. He attempts to teleport through it but it seems the very plane resists him. How do we get through this?

June 27th, 2017

Riann casts a spell that appears to heal her and then another while pointing at Sanna and saying “you need to go to the chapel and clean up”. She then flies towards Obregon. Beltin flies right above her and attempts to hit her but misses. Pike begins to aim while Sanna moves off and begins cleaning the door to the chapel which she can’t open. Obregon shoots at her 12 times, hitting once. Gonoan moves over under Riann but doesn’t attack; just looks up menacingly. Brunj moves out and casts spiritual weapon, hitting her once. Elaine moves to Sanna and pulls out the dispel magic wand. Riann pulls the shield from her back which begins to float around her while she hits Beltin with one of her stingers. Beltin swings and misses, and then pulls out a potion. Pike shoots twice but misses as well. Obregon shoots her 8 times, hitting twice. Gonoan stands, cursing Beltin as a coward. Brunj’s spiritual weapon misses and he casts flame strike hitting her plus Gonoan and Beltin. She takes no damage but both party members do. Elaine attempts to dispel the magic on Sanna but fails. Riann attacks Beltin with all 4 stingers, causing him to fall unconscious and drift to the floor. Obregon shoots 8 more times, hitting thrice. Pike becomes invisible and moves next to her. Gonoan looks at Beltin’s fallen body and mumbles about needing to kill him but takes no actions. Brunj casts break enchantment, freeing Sanna and Gonoan from Riann’s influence. Elaine casts magic missile from the wand, hitting with 4. Riann pulls out her spiked chains and says she will kill Beltin if anyone attacks her and then starts casting a spell. Gonoan smacks her once and then Pike reaches on to his tiptoes and slides his longsword in to her groin, releasing the magic missiles stored therein. The shocked look on her face lasts only a moment before her corporeal form vanishes. Brunj restores Beltin and heals Gonoan. We move back down to the chapel and resume our search. We put the remains in the portable hole and find one body is of Riann. We find nothing else of interest so head up the other staircase. It ends at a door which pike opens with Zagig’s key revealing a medium sized room with doors lining the walls. Each door contains a bronze plaque emblazoned with a simple rune indicating the different schools of magic. A hardback chair next to a table heaped with books and papers is on our left. The majority of the room appears to be a laboratory set up with alchemical tools and vials. In the back right corner is a bed surrounded by gauzy curtains. We search the room carefully, and find lots of spell components, items to help create magical items and books for doing the same. Nothing is magical as Sanna uses the wand. Pike checks the door with Evocation engraved on it and finds nothing so opens it on to a small room with spell components and apparatuses for use in Evocation. This trend holds true for the rest of the doors and we collect all of the items from the closets and the rest of the room in to our portable hole. We search these rooms and find a secret door in the 3rd one up on the left. Pike checks it and is able to open it, which reveals a hallway that’s about 20’ long with an alcove opening on the right. We move down and pause while Pike checks the other end. The alcove contains a pair of pale violet metal doors, 10’tall, with a carving of catstle greyhawk in its prime with a large human coming out of the clouds above it to a cheering crowd. Pike finds a secret door and after a few tries is able to open it. He opens it to reveal a passage that turns around a corner. We walk down and look around the corner and see a statue of Zagig. There is a set of foot prints moving from the statue to the double doors, identical to those Obregon found leading to the statue in the other hallway which vanished. So we move back and Pike checks the violet doors, finds no trap or lock but they won’t open even to Zagig’s key. Sanna says prayers to boccob and zagig but nothing happens. Detect magic reveals an overwhelmingly strong aura of unreadable school. Zagig likely created these doors so sanna pulls out the octych and while nothing happens, he notices the octych is a orangeish metal while this is violet. Sanna tries the other key of Zagig she has and….

June 13th, 2017

Beltin hits the remaining fiend twice, the first time hitting it right in the gonads. Pike moves into the room, accepting a claw hit from the fiend as he attempts to escape the stench. Gonoan hits it 3 times with his axe as Obregon puts 4 arrows in to it, causing it to disappear. Pike moves to the south door, finds no traps and using Zagigs key, opens it. This hallway has 3 alcoves down each side with a statue of different humanoids in each that do not seem quite finished. At the end, there is a glowing blue pool with a rope bridge across it to a statue of a wizard with a triumphant look on its upturned face. Pike tests the first step of the hallway for traps but finds none. Sanna jumps out front in to the hallway and looks at the first statue, which looks as if it is blurry in some way. Beltin moves down to the end of the hallway, noticing the pool almost seems to give off its own light. The statues seem to look more finished as you go down the hall until finally the triumphant statue of Zagyg is ezquisitely crafted. Obregon tracks around the arena room and can tell that a barefoot woman has been through here in the last week. She came down this hallway and stopped at the second set of statues, facing the one to the west. There are no return tracks, WTF?! Obregon and Pike both check the statue but find nothing so Sanna activates the wand of detect magic. All of the statues glow with necromancy except the one we are suspicious of which glows with transmutation. We check it every way we can think of including Pike attempting to use it, all to no avail. Gonoan attempts to break one of the statues but makes not even a scratch. Obregon moves to the blue pool and sticks an arrow in, noticing it looks like water but doesn’t seem wet. He empties out a healing potion and fills it with the water, though it almost immediately begins to lose its glow. Gonoan and Beltin move back in to the large room, bored of the statues where Beltin goes in to the alcove and sits on the bench. Beltin asks for someone to search the alcove and teleports to the lowest level of the floor. Gonoan moves up to the north door and starts to try and open it. Beltin takes a little damage and feels suddenly weaker so teleports to the north door. Obregon searches the alcove but finds nothing while Beltin heals himself.Pike comes over and opens the door, revealing a statue of a serene looking man with his hands folded in front of him with the zig zag lines carved in to its forehead. There is a hall to the east. Pike searches the statue but finds nothing. Gonoan attempts to tip it over but it won’t budge. Beltin walks in to the hall and sees it turns to the north with a door at the end as well as one in the east wall. Sanna walks back down the other hall and puts her hands on the transmutation statue with no effect. Pike touches the east facing door with the key and we see an empty storage room with shelves built in it. We search it and find nothing. Pike does the same to the north door and it opens on to a small room with stairs going down and the stench of decay wafts up. We go down the stairs and come unto an oddly shaped cathedral like chamber. Hanging like macabre decorations around the room are nearly a dozen mutilated bodies of men and women in rags, several of which we recognize from Greyhawk. Seven alcoves hold statues of Boccob which were once beautiful but have all been deformed in to horrible caricatures. Opposite is an eighth statue of Boccob, also mutilated and an altar crawling with vermin. Lying on the stone altar is a beautiful blond priestess of boccob bound by chains, she calls out “help me” and we recognize her voice as that of Riann. Above her stands a deformed human also dressed in decayed clerical vestments with a knife poised above her heart. He says do no interrup the ceremony to boccob, tosses the knife down and charges at us. Beltin spits acid at it and swaps weapon crystals. Sanna tosses 3 scorching rays at it, hitting once. Pike shoots it once and Brunj attempts to turn it but cries out that the area is desecrated. Obregon turns it into a pincushion with 6 arrows as it charges Beltin, who recognizes it as Rigby. It tries to bite Beltin but takes a shield in the side of the face. Elaine hits it with 4 magic missiles just before Gonoan crashes in to it, axe first, hitting hard. Beltin swings at it twice but is so put off by the familiar face, he whiffs. Sanna hits it with an orb of electricity, it sparks, jerks and falls lifeless. She immediately cast detect magic and there are some strong divination spells on Riann as well as some magic items. Beltin moves up to her, Pike believes she is really Riann, Obregon pours a healing potion down her throat, Sanna checks her pulse and Gonoan has his axe raised in case she does something funny. She sits up and tells us that the area is desecrated and she doesn’t have what she needs to correct it. We ask for her tale and she was attacked in a carriage with the others in this room. Then she woke up here. She asks if we found the god trap but we told her we have not. She says she doesn’t have all of her stuff and needs to get her bearings so would like to go upstairs and try to determine where we are. Beltin and Sanna choose to accompany her and they head up the stairs to the arena room. When we get there, Riann makes a move towards Sanna and Beltin yells out, what are you doing and shoves her away. She grows wings and turns in to a demoness, pulling out a spiked chain. Sanna hits her with a cold lightning bolt and moves in to the hall. Beltin spits acid at her but does no damage. Riann casts a spell causing a glowing dome to appear around her. Sanna dispels the dome. Beltin slams the door shut in her face and moves to the door at the stairs, opening it and yelling that Riann turned in to a demon. The rest of the group races up the stairs and Beltin opens the door again. He steps out and Pike shoots at the demon with a crossbow bolt but misses. Sanna fires off a disintegrate at her, but it fizzles. Obregon moves up and hits her with an arrow. Gonoan moves in to the room and Elaine gets stuff ready. Brunj is ready to heal. The demoness formerly know as Riann casts a spell on Gonoan. Beltin drinks a fly potion and begins to hover in the air above where he was standing. Pike shoots at her but misses. Sanna tosses a blast of cold which doesn’t do much damage. Obregon hits her with a single arrow. Gonoan stares at Beltin but does nothing. Damn, she is hard to hit.

May 30th, 2017

Pike is able to discern that the draconic runes indicate praise. After comparing notes, it appears that these are a teleporter of some sort. We break out the teleporter handbook but this room isn’t listed. Gonoan knows 2 of them and believes one set says Vault of creation, and one says crypts of the forgotten. Since we can only decipher half of the symbols and all of the symbols are required to make real sense, Obregon copies the runes on to a parchment and we go up to Shinda to see if she can translate for us. She tells us that one of the shards are probably wherever the brightly glowing rune set leads. The room we were in is called the nexus chamber and the last person to teleport went to Zagigs prison. However, we are unable to figure out how to activate it. Our next step is to return to the nexus chamber and let Pike attempt to activate it with his special rogueness. We are transported to another area. There are 3 alcoves overlooking this ocatagonal room with a blue pyramid in the center of the floor. There is electricity arcing and sparking around it. There are a set of black metal double doors as the only exit. The doors are marked with a glowing zig zag, which is Zagigs symbol. We appear in the alcove across from the doors and there are markings that indicate that each alcove accesses a teleporter to a different location. We move to the double doors, taking care to avoid the electrified pyramid. Pike checks the door, doesn’t find any traps and as he goes to pick the lock, it unlocks itself. He pushes the door open. This small hall has another set of black adamantine doors opposite the ones we came through. Pike listens at the door and can hear several large creatures on the other side. He finds no traps and again as he begins to pick the lock, it unlocks itself. We do some healing and preparing before Gonoan pushes the door open on to a large arena type chamber. The room descends by 3 5’steps into an octagonal room. In the north and south walls are black metal doors identical to the ones we are standing in and to the west is an alcove with a stone bench. There are observation booths around the perimeter and 3 demons on the lowest step in front of the bench. They leer malevolently at us and mutter guttural sounds which Gonoan knows is them talking about being ready for us and that we are entertainment. One asks who is watching? Beltin immediately spits acid at the middle one while Pike shoots the same one with 2 bolts, hitting once. Sanna tosses a ball of cold, hitting all three but it fizzles as gets to them. Gonoan charges the one in the center, taking damage with every level he passes so he turns around and comes back to the hall. Obregon opens fire at the center one, hitting 5 times, 3 of them in his right eye. Brunj casts a spell on his arrows. A demon charges Gonoan but misses. Another charges Beltin and hits him once. The third stands in place and glares from across the room. Beltin smacks the one in front of him while Pike tosses the fist of Emirikol at it, turning it in to a toad. BAM! Sanna and Pike succumb to the demons stench and begin to retch and gag. Gonoan slashes his demon twice while Obregon hits the one that didn’t move 5 times, killing it. Brunj is nauseated as well. The remaining demon attacks Gonoan, hitting 3 times and attempting to grab him but Gonoan slips free. The one in the shape of a toad disappears. Two down, one to go.

May 16th, 2017

We get off the wall and head towards the church of st Cuthbert, using only side streets. Sanna notices someone walking ahead of us who doesn’t appear to have noticed us. Obregon notices a nightwatchmen in a stand but they make no alarm. We arrive at the church and ask to see Eritae. Several priests take us to a room where they normally check bodies and do healing. We put the priest’s body on a table and the priests ask what help we need. We tell them to check the body to see if he is truly dead and to wake Eritae. When they pull the vestments back, the body is now that of a doppleganger. Its eyes flutter open and Beltin yells out to restrain it and he and Gonoan each grab an arm. Beltin orders the priests to find shackles. About 10 minutes later, Eritae arrives in full armor. She asks what is going on and Beltin apologizes for waking her and relates our tale. She asks the creature how long it has been impersonating Dasinder but it says nothing. She says we will put this creature away in a place it can’t get out of and asks what our next move is. We say that we aren’t sure as we are worried about issues with the church of Boccob. She offers us asylum for the night. She warns us that any of the factions we share info with could be manipulating us or this could be something from Bronwyn and her ilk. Sanna decides to go back to the church of boccob and Pike decides to accompany her. He goes invisible and when they get within site of the walls, so does Sanna. She walks close to the wall and can see a stone golem and a number of guards and priests moving around as well as more of a presence at the entrances and towers. She doesn’t hear anything helpful so she begins to head towards the mages guild. There now appear to be at least one person always in view. Pike thinks this is just normal patrolling. When she arrives at the guild, Pike returns to St Cuthbert. Sanna researches dopplegangers and finds they tend to kill their prey before impersonating them. She does meet with her old contact and she gives him a quick rundown on what happened in the ruins. Her contact said the octych is a part of an artifact. She then rests there and returns to the rest of the party in the morning. After she returns, we go down to question the doppleganger. When the door is opened, the chamber is empty. Eritae feels the floor and declares it has been gone for a while. We suggest maybe there is a traitor in the church and she responds with it could be some other creature. What else could have escaped from a sealed room? Then Beltin goes to the privy after which he leaves the church and heads to the church of boccob. When he arrives, the gate guard recognizes him and he asks for the high priest or the highest ranking member available. They take him inside to a waiting room. After a short while, a few low ranking priests come in accompanied by Dasinder the high priest. Dasinder explains that he was prepared for an attack and used the doppleganger to represent himself. He was occupying the creature when the attack came and he departed to remain safe. The church bears no ill will towards the Shadow Phoenix. After leaving, Beltin returns to the church of St Cuthbert to find that the rest of the party has gone on to the Green Dragon Inn. Obregon questions Rikard about Captain Gallanz, who has not been seen in several weeks but apparently that’s not unusual. Pike is talking to the other patrons, seeking information on Gallanz. He has left the city and has residences in other places but he isn’t one to talk about his comings and goings so no one knows where he actually is. He does like to hear about others adventures and likes to be where the drama is. We decide to head home and attempt to use the octych. Pike attempts to use it and even though he feels like he did it right, nothing happens. We know it may activate gates or open a portal but it isn’t working here. Brunj believes it is not religiously affiliated. Sanna feels that it may be only operated by power magic which would be why it is not working. We continue discussing our next step and decide to head back down below the rainbow room and finish exploring those areas. We leave on the 10th of Sunsebb and return to the ruins. We arrive to the octagonal room below the rainbow room and head down the southeast corridor which shortly turns to the south and ends in a T junction. We go left which ends at a door. Pike checks it, finds nothing and opens it. Behind it the hallway continues with several alcoves on each side and one at the far end. We enter and each alcove is decorated with an oversized landscape painting with amazing detail. They are as varied as they are beautiful. In the lower right corner of each, Nolzur has signed them. They each are of areas of great danger and adventure, including White Plume mountain, tomb of horrors, sea of dush, and the land of black ice. Sanna pulls out the octych but nothing happens here either. Sanna detects magic while Pike and Obregon search the room. One of the paintings is of Castle Greyhawk and there is actually a secret door behind it. Pike knows something will happened to the painting if it is moved. He isn’t sure he wants to try moving it but Gonoan reaches in and grabs it, causing it to crumble to dust. Pike figures out that the door is magically sealed so Sanna dispels the magic and Gonoan opens it. There is a hallway behind here which clearly connects to the opposite hallway. Pike finds the secret door at the other end which is also arcane locked. Sanna dispels it and Gonoan opens it too. Here are more alcoves and paintings which Gonoan begins pulling from the walls. They crumble as he pulls them down. We go back and search the secret hallway and find a secret door in the south wall. Sanna opens the door and there are 2 identical C shaped tables built in to the east and west walls. There are glowing runes in the top of each and one set is glowing brightly. They are written in abyssal, celestial, draconic and infernal. If one knows each language the message can be decoded.

May 2nd, 2017

We make our way to the connecting hallways beneath the towers and go in to the tower of Zagig. We find no evidence of Iggwilv immediately so we move down the through the fountains but still find nothing. We move back up through the tower of magic and go around to talk to the priests of Boccob. We ask if they have seen Iggwilv or know where she might be. They believe it is of no importance to Boccob but think she would be in the tower of Zagig. They don’t know what the shards are and don’t know about the demoness. We let them see the octych and they believe this must be important to Zagig for some reason. They surmise Iggwilv has likely shut herself away at the God trap. The shards are probably the only way in at this point. Pike attempts to use the octych without success. Elaine looks over the octych and believes it is of seul construction. We decide to talk to Kellick after all. We make the trek back to Greyhawk and show him the octych and ask what he knows. Kellick offers to call in a fellow seeker that knows more about them. He arrives and is a Seul. He and Sanna exchange pleasantries. He then approaches Sanna and takes the octych while assuring her that he will not claim it. He agrees it is an octych and stresses how important it is. Eli Tumerast is someone who would love to get their hands on it and has a heritage for using them but we should keep it away from him. Mordekainen would probably know more. He then takes Kellick in to another room. They return a few moments later and ask if there is anything else we need. Kellick also asks if we have found anything else of interest. We tell him about the items from the cases off the rainbow room. He says if we leave them there, he will take a look at them so we do. We head home and find a scroll on the table. It says I need to talk to you about Riann, meet me at the church. We send back “when” and get back “now, its important”. We head out with Pike and Obregon scouting ahead. They see Riann waiting for us and immediately hide. Pike comes back to the rest of us and we decide to come at her from several directions. She is startled and tells us that she didn’t call for us. Her high priest told her to be here and look for us. We notice that the top of one tower is lit up and someone is moving around. She says there have been some strange incidents, from the demon attempting to breach the walls and now the high priest is acting not like himself. Beltin turns and begins climbing the tower. Sanna moves to the base of the tower looking for a way in . Beltin looks in the window and sees an older man in his night clothes. He does not seem surprised to see Beltin at his window. Beltin asks if we can help him and he says that is a strange question after climbing up the wall. He invites Beltin in and asks why he’s here. Beltin tells him that someone summoned us to talk about Riann and sent Riann to meet us, and it was probably him. So what did he need? He says it will be quick and closes the window. Beltin opens the window and hollers out “this seems hinky”. The rest of the party starts running up the stairs inside the tower. The priest says you should not have opened that window. His form changes and he grows bone like wings with stingers and now appears to be a female succubus. It seems this is the demon that has been terrorizing the church. Beltin gets in a hit as she changes though it doesn’t seem to hurt as much as it should. He then spits acid in her face and jumps out the window. The party is at the chamber door and Pike picks the lock. Sanna opens the door and immediately shoots the succubus with a disintegrate. She is pretty messed up but isn’t dead yet. Gonoan runs up and hits her with his axe while Elaine hits her with some magic missiles from the wand. Pike shoots at her with his crossbow but misses. Obregon begins shooting her with arrow after arrow until it crumbles. As it falls, it turns back in to the priest. People outside are beginning to yell and congregate towards the tower. Beltin climbs back up and tells the rest of the party to come out the window and bring the priest. We make a beeline toward the outer wall and climb over it. At least one person spots us and hollers out as we are going. Shit, we have been set up.

April 18th, 2017

We decide to not see Kellick. One of the street kids reports in to Beltin that Riann is leaving Greyhawk and wanted us to know that she was leaving. She also sent a potion of resurrection for us which Beltin puts in his haversack. We pick up Gonoan’s magic item the next morning , the 6th of Sunsebb, and then head back to the ruins. We make our way back to the ziggurat without molestation. We stop in the side cave and get new fire crystals before entering through the fire pillar. Sanna is suspicious of the crystals and figures out that the crystals are illusory and that the real ones have been removed. We decide to wait until the crystals regrow and fortunately nothing happens while we wait. We harvest the new ones and proceed to the ziggurat and go down through the fire pillar. Beltin leads the way and we enter the main room again. Vexia is waiting for us and tells us that for the last couple of days a pile of the fire crystals have come falling down the opening. She kept expecting us to show up but was getting frustrated when we didn’t. We put our plan in motion and take all of Elaine’s magic items and high tail it down the stairs. She attempts casting Mordekainen’s disjunction but it fizzles. Pike joins her and she tries the anti-magic field spell which also fails. She tries a second time but is still unsuccessful. We are out of ideas so decide to head back to town and buy more. After we leave the tower, Obregon notices that some moss has been planted along the route between towers. He can tell there have been a couple of human females digging in the ground here. He is pretty sure one set of tracks are the same as those in the secret library. He pokes the ground with his spear and nothing happens. Sanna looks it over but can’t come up with what it could be. Obregon puts his nature skills to the test and realizes that whoever planted this moss knew what they were doing. Pike is pretty sure this is a trap of some sort. As a precaution, Beltin breathes acid on the moss, killing it. As we cross the courtyard in front of the tower of power, Obregon notices some strange marks in the ground as if someone was stepping a large piece of furniture along. It leads to the bridge and then turns around and comes back in to the tower of power. We also notice several dead bodies in the crevasse below the bridge. We keep going until we get to town and buy twice as many scrolls and more gaseous form potions. We turn around immediately and head back to the tower again. We arrive at the tower of magic and ask the kobolds if they saw the women plant the moss. They did see 2 human women there and they have been wandering around the ruins every now and again for the last week or so. We warn them about potential traps, and ask them about something moving around the center tower. They did see 2 huge monoliths moving around. We move down in to the tower, through the teleport and on the way to the pit, Obregon notices that something human sized has moved down one of the other holes that leads to the underdark. We move on to the ziggurat and down the flame pillar. We set Elaine up in the library and have her cast Mordekainens disjunction which goes off successfully. The long room looks exactly the same as it was even without its illusions. The rainbow room is disjoined and the 2 doors look the same as any other doors now. Sanna opens the door to the room with shinda’s cage. Shinda looks worse than the last time and calls for Vexia. She says she has to tell us something before “she” returns. You must stop Iggwilv, she is my enemy. She is the witch queen and only she can let me out. She looked and sounded like the witch queen but seemed off. She was sometimes accompanied by a beautiful women with horns and broken wings who was a demon of some sort. Last time she bragged she had captured her son, Iuz. She then told the demoness to tell the company of the 7 that they must hide the shards in the demiplanes. The shards must not fall in to Boccobs hands. I suggest contacting one of the deposed rajahs; they have no love Fraz Erbluh. They need to be hidden for a few more weeks and after that they can longer bother me. One of them is likely in the 176th layer of the abyss, Fraz’s realm. Shinda suggests finding them if we can. “Go if you must, I’m not sure if you can save me”. Pike looks over the cage and finds no traps. He attempts to unlock the cage door but fails twice and then uses the knock from his ring, which also fails. Obregon opens the other door and there are 9 glass display cases around this room which contains weapons, jewelry, clothing and other items. In the center is an ornate gaming table with a white rune in the center covered with shards of glass and playing cards. He sees a rod, a bag, and a crystal ball at first glance around the room. Sanna detects magic on Shinda’s cage and concentrates, discovering that the cage is a powerful artifact. She then walks across to the other room and sprays the detect magic around. Each item in the cases have a plaque underneath them. There is a rod of lesser metamagic quicken (for use only in real emergencies), bag of holding IV, crystal ball (do not observe), headband of intellect +6 (what’s the point), periapt of good health(peril), book(do not read this), pink lace belt giant strength +4(has its uses), sword(not to be used among friends), spear(not to be trusted), and a deck of many things on the table. Pike uses his mage hand to pick up the items and put them in to the portable hole. We then place the hole on the floor and tip the table inside. Beltin takes Shinda’s cage and puts it in his haversack but it immediately reappears in the room. We try blinking, bending and disintegrating but nothing works. There’s nothing for it but to hunt down Iggwilv if we hope to save Shinda.

April 4th, 2017

We return home and chill out. Pike uses his knock feature to unlock the steel box we found in the demons library. Inside is a dark rock which appears to be its only contents. Pike reaches in and grabs it, finding that it feels very heavy. Sanna casts detect magic and learns this is a lodestone, a cursed item that slows down the bearer. Brunj can remove the curse in the morning so no running for Pike until then. Brunj does just that the next morning and then he casts speak with dead on the female mage we found in the timeless room. He asks her name and she say Ahsat. We ask how she came to the timeless room and she says she was pulled through a portal and immediately attacked by her evil doppleganger. We ask if she touched an orb or anything before arriving here and she says no she was attacked and then appeared here. After this answer, she stops responding. We sell our loot and order our items then decide to head to the mage’s guild with Ahsat and the dracolisk. The dwarven porters lead us through a back way to a waiting room and then Tenser shows up. We tell him that she is the doppleganger of Tasha. He asks where we found her and we relay the story. He says the orb of opposition has other names and then “um, Nolzur, Quaal, Keoughtum, Heward, Tasha, Zagig and Myrlund were the company of 7 who were there that day. Excuse me, wait here and touch nothing”. He returns and says “Mordekainen has not made himself available to me to answer any questions”. He says the body needs to be destroyed as having the opposites on the same plane can have disastrous results. We tell him to do what he needs to do. He tells us that Robilar betrayed them back at the signing but that may have been Bilaro. He asks that we don’t discuss these details with others. He gives us 30,000 gp for the dracolisk body. Sanna remembers that Tenser was different after he was killed and came back. And that when we first encountered him at the green dragon inn he looked at Rikard for a moment and then stared at Galanz. He pulled out a dragon chess piece and set it in front of Galanz who then tips it over. Tenser stalks out and Galanz tucks it in to his belt. We now know Galanz is really Bilaro so this is very odd in retrospect. Pike and Brunj go to the thieves guild and report in. On the way, Brunj asks how much he will be getting for his services and Pike offers 5k gp now and around 12% of his take each time we adventure out plus raise him from the dead if needed. Agreement struck. They meet Tiira and she acts a little disdainful towards Pike. Pike shares the tale and she nods. She asks how Pike is going to enrich her and he responds by saying he pays his dues, is there something else she wants him to do. She says to keep doing what he is doing and they will be watching. He donates 3k gold to the guild. He then goes to Kellick and shares our adventures with him. Kellick says he doesn’t have to come by to check in, just to keep up his journal. He asks if Pike has anything new or interesting to share and specifically asks about the octych. He offers to trade something for it and would like to talk with us about some of the things we found. Pike asks about the deck of many things and Kellick allows him to pull from it. He chooses 2 cards and gets the rogue and Vizier cards. Pike and Brunj return and say that Kellick would like to see Sanna about the octych she is carrying.

March 21st, 2017

Sanna reads through the books on the table and notices notes in the margins. These notes concern life, creatures, undead and anything considered alive and what constitutes being alive. Pike looks mostly at maps and more fanciful titles. There are a number of maps, mostly of areas that Zagig adventured in many years ago. A lot of these we now know by different names and have been explored numerous times. We discuss ways to bypass the rainbow room and our best option seems to be an antimagic field spell. We would need to return to town to obtain this spell but decide we shall check out the remaining 2 passages downstairs before returning. Vexia does not love this plan as she wants Shinda out now but has no better ideas. Sanna pores over the books on life and it appears that someone has been trying to create a simulacrum that could be truly alive. Maybe that was how Quaal and Heward’s semblances came to be. We sort the rest of the books and put them in Gonoan’s portable hole. After resting for the night, we head back downstairs to the eastern passage which is blocked by double doors. Pike checks and then opens the doors to reveal a narrow white sand beach along a seemingly endless ocean bordered by a blue cloudless sky. There are 2 outrigger boats beached nearby. Sanna looks around and believes it is a portal to another area or dimension. We decide to take a quick look around. Obregon ties a rope around his waist, then anchored by Gonoan and Beltin, walks through the doors and onto the beach. Behind there are palm trees and such but no signs of normal life as in no seaweed or debris on the beach and no animals or birds. While the sea appears to go on forever, behind the doorway, the view becomes hazy and indistinct as if a created extradimensional space. He returns and we close the doors. Brunj points out that the fire crystals are dimming and Sanna believes they will only last about a day so it is time to go so we don’t get stuck down here. We make our way out of the ziggurat and up the wall, and see the juggernaut in the main promenade. Beltin and Pike run towards the secret door while Sanna drops an acid fog over the juggernaut and moves as well. Gonoan, Brunj, Elaine and Obregon join the rest of the party. We can hear the juggernaut moving and a redcap comes jumping out of the fog, landing poorly and falling on his face. Pike finds and opens the door while Beltin takes up a guard position. Sanna joins the group and throws a fireball at the juggernaut. The front end of the juggernaut moves out of the cloud and another redcap climbs down. The fallen one gets up and looks around. We finish moving through the door and close it behind us. We move dwon the hall, across the bridge and in to the reception room and then back to the teleportation room. Pike deactivates the wind trap, we drink our potions and go through. We get through the rest of the tower without being molested and head back to town. Time for a quick re-equip and back to rescue Shinda.

March 7th, 2017

A mournful wail comes from this chamber as though through rents in the earth. We begin moving in the room; Beltin and Gonoan move on to the platform and look over the edge but see nothing but the pit. Obregon walks the walkway, tracking and sees other human footprints, some of which belong to Heward and Quaal. Sanna looks over the edge of the walkway but sees nothing of interest. Beltin spider climbs over the edge of the platform and though there is no support the workmanship is sound. Sanna casts detect magic again and can tell that from the platform one could cast Contact Higher Plane. Pike attempts to use the built in spell and spends a little while concentrating. Beltin climbs down the pit wall for quite a ways but finds no bottom or anything of interest. Brunj offers to help Pike and gives him advice on using the spell properly. Pike attempts to reach one of the Halfling gods but reaches someone else instead. Beltin continues to climb down until a god like being moves up the shaft. The being is here but the features are fairly abstract and it asks Pike if he has a question. Pike kneels in supplication and says with the greatest respect of your magnificence, where is the orb of opposition? The being responds that it doesn’t know and Pike manages to resist the wind that whips through his mind trying to blow him out like a candle. Sanna attempts to use the spell and a different, air type, elemental appears. Sanna asks if the orb of opposition is located in the ruins of greyhawk. Yes is the reply. Is it located in this tower? No. Which tower is it in? War. How many feet below ground is it? I don’t know. Is it above or below our current position? Its irrelevant. Have we been in the same location as the orb? Yes. Now, confused as ever, we decide to head back up the stairs to work on freeing Shinda. We arrive upstairs and find Vexia awaiting us. “You’ve been gone for a while and I was worried you wouldn’t return. What was beyond the stairs?” We tell her there was a lot of magic and things. We decide to go to the barren stone room and Sanna casts dispel magic in it. Nothing happens. So she walks in to the room and this room appears to be long and empty though very shiny. Sanna looks around but sees nothing of interest. We hatch a plan to dispel the magic in the rainbow room. To limit our exposure to the fascinating effects of the rainbow room, everyone but Beltin, Gonoan, Sanna and Pike are going to shield their gaze completely. Pike will be blindfolded and have his ears blocked with a rope around his waist, in case that isn’t enough, so he can open the door without being forced inside. Sanna will cast dispel magic in the room while looking at the floor. Gonoan will anchor the rope around Pike and, along with Beltin, keep an eye on Sanna in case she becomes fascinated. The plan works flawlessly but the dispel doesn’t seem to work. Sanna casts dispel magic a second time which also does nothing. Pike feels around the door, attempting to find a trap trigger but finds nothing. We signal him and he closes the door. He removes his blindfold and begins to search the room carefully. There is a secret door in the east wall which Pike struggles with but is finally able to open. Behind it is a shelf lined room filled with books, scrolls, tomes and other media upon which knowledge can be conveyed. a simple wooden chair next to a plain oak table complete the furnishings. There is a stack of books on the table with a glowing ball of light suspended above them. Pike steps in and looks at the books on the table. They all focus on the creation of life, according to their titles. Obregon attempts a tracking and learns that a female mage has been in here in the last couple of weeks. We search the room but find nothing else. Sanna casts detect magic and finds there are 4 magical books. The shelves are 3 rows deep with books including some of Zagigs personal spell books as well as maps and many other types of tomes and ledgers. Pike and Obregon each collect 2 of the magical tomes. Pike believes one of his books is a manual of gainful exercise +1 (27,500gp), which Sanna confirms. She identifies the other three as a Stone golem manual(22,000gp), book of infinite spells with 4 pages remaining, manual of leadership and influence +2(55,000gp). We put all of the books from this room in our portable hole. Now what? 39,710.2gp

February 21st, 2017

The portrait breaks and reveals another hole similar to Tasha’s with the same fun house mirror effect. Sanna has heard of a mirror dimension but doesn’t have a lot of information. Pike decides to smash the remaining portraits with the same result. As he is doing this, we hear music coming from down the hall. Beltin and Gonoan move down the hall and see the north door is now slightly ajar and the music is coming from behind it. Pike leaves the timeless room and turns invisible. The music sounds like a 4 piece band and the melody is very aggressive. We move out of the tunnel just slightly and prepare for whatever may come. The music changes to a song as Heward steps out from behind the door and Obregon, Gonoan and Brunj are fascinated by the magical tune. Pike moves up and takes a shot, hitting center mass. Heward staggers but continues to sing. Beltin runs up and spits acid in his face and Brunj suddenly shakes himself awake. Sanna and Elaine move up towards the group. Heward steps back through the door and closes it. We move up and Beltin opens the door behind which Heward has run down the hallway. We chase him down and around a corner where he drops while trying to open the double doors in front of him. Gonoan hears him begin casting a spell as he lies on the ground and decapitates him with one blow from his axe. We loot the body and find +1 merciful whip(8,301gp), wand of grease 43 charges(700gp), chain shirt +1(1,250gp), amulet of natural armor +1(2,000gp), cloak of charisma +2(4,000gp), and a scroll of mass suggestion(1,650gp). Pike checks the double doors and opens them to reveal a dark square room, empty except for the carving of a grotesque humanoid with bat wings and a gorilla shaped posture in the western wall through which the space extends as far as we can see. Brunj says this was some sort of demon and is obviously a warning and likely a gateway to hell. Sanna uses the detect magic wand and there is no magic in this room. We head back to the main room and go down the NW corridor. As we walk along, there are panes of glass in front of alcoves on either side. In each are several dozen doll sized but life like figurines in various adventuring gear. Just beyond are double doors with Turn Back painted on them. When Gonoan looks in one of the alcoves, he sees a doll that looks just like himself, down to his weapons and belongings. Looking closer, it appears there is also a doll missing. When Beltin looks in, he sees one of himself but not of Gonoan and it appears to be in the same spot. Beltin steps over to the other alcove and doesn’t see any of the group in it and it seems to be a completely different set of figures. Sanna casts detect magic again but there is no magic present. Gonoan opens the glass but still no magic is detected. Pike reaches in and grabs the doll that looks like himself and feels a strange sense of completeness and foreboding. There is now another doll in its place which Gonoan grabs as it looks like him. He feels the same as Pike did. Sanna grabs her doll and feels the same though she knows the foreboding is directly related to the double doors. Gonoan attempts to open the backpack on his doll but has trouble working with it because of its small size. Beltin opens the glass to the other alcove but nothing happens. Pike takes his doll and hides it in the main chamber. He no longer feels complete but still feels the foreboding. He checks the door and then opens it, revealing a hallway that turns to the west. Half way down is “go back, it’s not too late” in 9’ tall red letters. The passage seems to continue forever. We move to the NE passage as Pike retrieves his doll. When he puts it in his haversack, he no longer feels complete. He goes to take it out and it’s gone. The hall bends to the north and comes to a walkway around a huge seemingly bottomless pit with a platform that extends over the center.

February 7th, 2016

As Pike is looting the body, he notices the fingers moving. He calls out, plants a kick in the clerics ribs while Gonoan cuts his head off. We begin searching the room when suddenly Pike feels very weak. Brunj checks him out and determines that he has several curses on him. Brunj casts remove curse and then Pike drinks a couple of lesser restoration potions. Elaine casts detect magic but only the everburning torches in the room glow. Obregon finds a secret door in the south corner of the room which Pike figures out how to open. it opens on to a hallway which turns to the left and dead ends. A search reveals another secret door which opens on to the southwest corridor from the main room. To our right is a set of double doors. They are unlocked and open to reveal an octagonal room with stained glass portraits of adventurers on 6 of the 7 walls. the other wall used to have one but is now a gaping hole surrounded by tiny flames with broken glass on the floor. The portraits have brass plaques underneath them and are, clockwise, of a wild eyed man in robes with painters brush “Nolzur”, a thin man in a chain shirt with a rapier surrounded by floating feathers “Quaal”, a handsome man with a chain shirt wearing a belt w/many pouches in the midst of a large organ “Heward”, a Wild eyed man in gray robes with zigzag lines in his upturned palms “Zagig”, the plaque under the shattered picture says Tasha, a man with exotic leather armor and wide brimmed hat wielding a hand crossbow without the bow “Murlynd”, a lanky bare chested man in a marshal’s pose “Keoughtum”. In the center of the room is a polished metal sphere on a pedestal. Between the pedestal and the broken portrait lies the body of a woman in a form fitting leather gown. In the far corner are several copies of 2 of the men depicted, Quaal’s are floating and Heward’s is on the ground. Beltin goes to the woman, while Gonoan and Sanna step in. The woman is not breathing and though it doesn’t appear to have happened that long ago, Obregon is pretty sure it’s been quite a while. Pike searches the body and it appears to be warm though she is long dead. The hole in the wall appears to not be too deep but also seems to go on and on like a fun house mirror. Brunj inspects the body and declares she is recently deceased though that is impossible as he and Elaine have been just down the hall for the last several hours and would have heard a battle. Beltin looks at the copies, compares them to the originals and they appear to have all been made at the same time. Pike believes the copies are valuable. Obregon cracks a sun rod and tosses it in to the hole and it goes in farther than it seems it should. Sanna believes Tasha is a mage and a former apprentice to zagig. Elaine detects magic and says we shouldn’t stay in this room too long as there is something wrong or missing with time and space. The orb detects as strong necromancy. We begin hearing some singing from the hallway from a figure that looks like Heward and Quaal comes up behind him. Belitn rushes up and spits acid at them. Obregon shoots Elaine twice as he is under the influence of a spell as are Elaine, Pike and Gonoan. Sanna dispels magic and it works on Gonoan and Elaine. Quaal moves up to Beltin and attempts to stab him with the rapier but is deflected by his shield. Pike grabs the sphere and disappears, a stained glass portrait of him appears over the hole. Brunj moves to Elaine and stabilizes her. Gonoan charges and hits Quaal. Heward pulls out a wand and casts a slippery surface along the front of the room. Beltin smashes Quaal in the face, dropping him. Obregon shoots Sanna, hitting once. Sanna attempts to dispel the magic on Obregon again but it doesn’t work. Pike finds himself in a dark place. He can’t move or speak but can hear the sounds of combat. Brunj heals Elaine and Gonoan moves up and hits Heward once. Heward steps back and casts a spell, disappearing. Sanna dispels the spell on Obregon. She then says that breaking the portrait would release Pike. She and brunj break it and they pull Pike out from the hole. Beltin and Gonoan search Quaal and find a keen rapier +1, MW shortbow, wand of magic missile 9th level 44 charges, mithral chain shirt +1, ring of protection +1, amulet of natural armor +1, and gloves of dexterity +2. We put the portrait copies in the portable hole. We decide to smash the picture of Nolzur to see what happens. The glass shatters under Gonoan’s axe and…

January 24th, 2017

We appear in a small stone chamber. In the center is floating an orange wedge no bigger than a human thumb, it is an octych. Sanna studies it without touching it. it looks a little bit beat up and like it was inserted in to something. Pike and Obregon search the room but don’t find anything to indicate anyone else has stepped foot in here in a long time. Sanna grabs the octych and the curtains and light beam vanish. The visions grow hazy in our minds as if we are suddenly forgetting those experiences. We head back down the hallway and find Elaine and Brunj sitting on the stairs with the gate closed and there is light coming from the western tunnel that wasn’t there previously. Brunj signals us to be quiet and we can hear there are people down the stairs. Pike goes invisible and creeps to the top of the stairs which go down 5’ and open onto a large room which looks like a museum. There is a catwalk around the room with several burly humans in studded leather. On the north end is a black dragon skeleton hung from chains while to the south is huge arm dangling from mithral chains. In the middle are several broken display cases. Pike comes back to fill us in while Brunj and Elaine tell us that we appeared to be gone a couple of hours. while we were gone, the room down the stairs lit up and then there were some arcane sounds. She suspects that something was summoned. Beltin and Gonoan move on to the stairs and the rest of the group comes along. Beltin yells to the barbarians to lay down their weapons and they will not be harmed and readies his Morningstar. Pike moves up invisibly and stabs one in the gut, releasing the stored magic missiles, doing some devastating damage but not quite killing him. Obregon moves up and finishes that one off. As it falls, the body disappears. Gonoan steps up and begins whaling on another, hacking him to pieces. Sanna prepares a spell but holds. Suddenly, we hear arcane chanting from above, after which the dragon skeleton and large arm break free of their chains. The arm moves up and attacks the nearest creature which happens to be one of the barbarians. It grabs him by the head and crushes him. The dragon takes a step forward and attacks Gonoan, slamming him. The remaining barbarian rushes Gonoan and attempts to bull rush him, fails and takes hits from Gonoan and Beltin, dropping him in his tracks. Beltin moves in to the room and breathes acid at the dragon, which takes it full in the face. Pike turns invisible and uses a healing potion. Obregon begins shooting at the skeleton, hitting 5 times causing it to crumble. Gonoan charges the arm and hits it. Sanna tosses a lightning bolt at it, and it looks bad off. A rock comes flying from where the skeleton originated, landing near Sanna and suddenly most of us can no longer hear anything. Gonoan gets hit by a blunt attack that he can’t see. The arm attacks Gonoan, hitting him and taking acid damage which destroys it. Beltin sprays acid along the back of the room where the rock came from. Pike picks up the rock and puts it in his haversack, causing sound to return. Obregon casts a spell searching for any of his favored enemies but doesn’t learn anything. Gonoan listens intently and believes whatever it is, is higher than us so he moves up the northern cat walk. Sanna casts detect magic and there is magic around the ceiling above Gonoan. We hear arcane casting but nothing immediately seems to happen. Beltin climbs the wall above Gonoan and swings wildly but hits nothing. Pike shoots twice and hits something once. Obregon begins babbling incoherently; apparently he is under the effect of confusion. Gonoan listens intently. Sanna casts a dispel magic, ending Obregon’s confusion, Beltin’s spider climb (he feather falls to the cat walk) and the male human cleric becomes visible standing upside down on the ceiling. The cleric does not look happy and decides to vent his ire upon poor Beltin by way of climbing down and swinging at him. Gonoan scores a wicked hit and the cleric misses. Beltin swings back, crushing his chest in. We loot his body and find Slippers of spider climbing, wand of hold person, gloves of dex +2, belt of giant strength +4, horn of Valhalla.

January 10th, 2017

Beltin attempts to convince the dragon we are peaceful and are only attempting to rescue a friend upstairs. The dragon says you do not come in peace armed and armored. Beltin says that the area is dangerous and the dragon replies that he is one of the dangers. Sanna moves back down a little bit and checks the ceiling to see if there is anything on it that would help us evade the dragon. Gonoan steps down and starts swinging at the dragon, hitting twice. Pike moves down, finds the gate closed with an arcane lock and uses the knock ring to undo it. Obregon yells that we just want to find out how to deactivate the rainbow room but shoots the dragon 4 times when he gets no response; hitting all 4 times. Brunj moves down and Elaine tosses magic missiles at it but they fizzle as they hit. Beltin spits acid at the dragon and whispers to Pike to check the 4th step for traps or triggers. Sanna casts prismatic ray at it, hitting it for electric damage, while apologizing to the dragon. The dragon disappears. Gonoan listens intently and can hear it is still there, but is unable to connect with a swing of his axe. Pike checks the 4th step but finds nothing. Obregon shoots at the obviously invisible dragon, hitting twice. Beltin swings at it but even though he’s sure he hit, nothing happens as it appears to be ethereal. Sanna hits it with a fireball, manifested as cold and sculpts it to only hit around the outside of the cage. The dragon reappears and crumples to the ground dead. The gate swings open easily under Beltin’s hand and we enter the octagonal chamber. Obregon takes a claw from the dragon but Beltin stops anything else from being taken. There is a shimmering orange curtain in front of the southern door, while the eastern and northern have double doors. West has stairs going down; NE, NW and SW go down a short ways and turn while SE is a long straight hall. Sanna believes the curtains are magical and there are tests between each consecutive curtain in order to pass. Pike attempts to use magic device on the curtain and we all appear in a new area. We are sitting before our teacher, Slerotin, who is telling us about Power magic which the Seul use to prosper. Eventually he turns to us and asks us to repeat the lesson. Obregon goes first but is unable to do so. Gonoan fails as well but Sanna speaks and the scene fades away. We are now closer to the end of this hall, in between the first and second curtains. Sanna touches the next curtain and we are now in a plaza of a mighty city. Slerotin has asked us to create a statue from the rock in front of us in to a likeness of the greatest wizard on Oerth. We have just begun our work and are anxious to see how it turns out. We all choose who to raise a statue to: Pike wrote Zagyg and his intelligence went up a point, as did Sanna’s and Obregons. Gonoan chooses himself but doesn’t receive anything immediate. Beltin says Mordekainen and nothing happens. The vision fades and we are between the 2nd and 3rd curtains. Sanna touches the next curtain and we find ourselves standing alongside Slerotin before the emperor who is talking about mounting an attack against the Bakkarush empire. Slerotin counsels restraint though the emperor wants aggression. Pike says to focus on the perpetrators not the whole kingdom. Obregon agrees and Sanna says she believes the battle will fail. Gonoan says he will do whatever and Beltin says let us assassinate the other emperor. Slerotin smiles with pride and the vision fades. Touching the next curtain, the emperor has ignored Slerotin and has us enacting the violent Power magic but we can feel the opposition casting a devastating magic as well and as the Bakkarush are destroyed a colorless flaming rain devastates the Seul imperium. Slerotin tells us that he has an escape for some select citizens and asks us to accompany him. We decide to go and most of us take damage from the colorless fire, with Sanna falling unconscious. We reappear betwixt the next 2 curtains. We heal ourselves up and touch the next curtain. We are with Slerotin, leading the survivors through an underground tunnel he has created. Occasionally it intersects with other tunnels and we have to defend the others. We each tell how we would defend the refugees. Our plans are successful and we are now beyond the 5th curtain. In the next scene we have emerged from the tunnel and there are many areas to claim as a new homeland. Some refugees want to go east staying within the tropics and others are more interested in going to the north which is less harsh. We decide to head north. We are now past the 6th curtain and touch the 7th. We have found a place for our followers yet the world is not safe. Power magic make this world unsafe and we are the only remaining practitioners and must leave this world. We create a key called an optich and only those who hold the correct key can enter these new worlds we create. We describe our worlds and we are able to move. The 8th curtain leads us to the plaza where we raised the statues but only dust remains. There is a disturbance in the dust and Slerotin appears and questions why we have returned. He does not like our answers but we manage to survive his wrath. What awaits beyond the last curtain?

December 27th, 2016

Beltin spider climbs up the back side of the ziggurat until he reaches the top. The heat from the flame is overwhelming but before he moves back down a level he notices that the flame originates from a shaft down in to the pyramid. The rest of the team move up and Beltin stops them before they get too close. Sanna attempts to dispel it with the wand but nothing happens. She does feel that this probably taps in to the elemental plane of fire. Next, she pulls out the wand of detect secret doors to see if there is a hidden entrance. It only shows the fire’s shaft as an entrance which is odd, but no others. As they walk around, they notice the dragon creature is not where we left it. Obregon runs down to track it and sees it moved around the back side of the ziggurat. He hollers out to the rest of the party and we all race to the nearest edge to attempt to spot it. Gonoan hears it near the mouth of the cavern and heads towards it, yelling out its location. Beltin runs to the edge of the ziggurat and leaps off, feather falling to the base. Obregon charges it and kills it with one hit but he hits it a couple more times just to be sure. Obregon tracks around the cavern but finds nothing else of interest. Beltin and Gonoan manhandle the dracolisk corpse in to one of the portable holes. Sanna uses the detect magic wand around the ziggurat and the flame. Meanwhile Beltin and Obregon check out the small chamber with the glowing crystals. Sanna gets that the flame is extremely powerful elemental fire and the ziggurat has magic against magical movement/teleportation. Beltin and Obregon notice the glowing crystals are easily broken off. Beltin takes one and runs back to the top and no longer feels the heat from the flame. He relays that information to Obregon who breaks off the remaining 10 crystals. Beltin moves in to the shaft and feels like he is floating but can choose to go up or down. He goes down a little ways and it opens in to a large chamber which appears to have been melted out of the metal. To the west is a granite door with an intricate carving of an exotic coiled dragon. To the north and south are double iron doors with strips of ivory and jade. The rest of the party follows, comes out in to the room and we begin to look around. Sanna can actually feel the presence of the magic she detected earlier. No scrying or teleporting will work here, and the surfaces cannot be transmuted in any way. We decide to start with the dragon door and Pike finds no traps and hears no evil behind it so he opens it quietly (sort of). It opens to reveal stairs going down which change about 50’ down in to metal risers surrounded by metal lattice work. Sanna and Elaine begin moving down the stairs despite warnings from the rest of us. She stops and listens, hears nothing and retreats back to the top. Pike checks the north doors and opens them to find a chamber where the walls appear to undulate and have a rainbow petrified within them. There is a door shaped as a white cloud to the left and one that looks like rippling black mist to the right and each have bronze handles shaped like the tongue of a gargoyle. This room is almost psychedelic and several of us are entranced by it and the wall begins to slap us with prismatic effects. Beltin gets hit with a red beam but nothing happens and he grabs the handle of the door with the black mist. It pulls open on to a room containing just a tall back chair with red velvet cushions and hanging from a chain in the ceiling is a 6” diameter bird cage in which a small humanoid lies slumped. Sanna is fascinated by the rainbow effect, is hit by the yellow beam and takes a lot of damage. Gonoan is also fascinated and hit by 2 beams, a blue and a red, neither of which affect him. Obregon yanks Sanna out of the room. Pike gets hit with red and takes no damage and then runs back in to the main room. Beltin grabs Gonoan and pulls him in to the room with him. Beltin then walks up to the cage and peers inside. There is a tiny woman lying here and when Beltin calls to her and asks if she is Shinda. She stirs and raises her head, her eyes are glazed and she appears to be in despair. She says she is Shinda and Beltin says we are friends of Vexia and here to rescue her. She begs to be freed but doesn’t know how to get out. Beltin spider climbs to the ceiling and removes the chain from the hook. We then run back through to the original room. We each take a beam but resist the effect. As we enter the original room, the cage disappears and returns to its original position. We decide to check the southern double doors, hoping to find a way to neutralize the rainbow room. The doors open and we see a barren wide chamber. The stone in this room is polished to a glass like sheen. Elaine casts detect magic in the room and finds powerful illusion and transmutation effects. We decide discretion is the better part of valor and proceed down the stairs. This octagonal domed room has 8 hallways radiating from it though one appears blocked by rippling orange energy. The ceiling has an elaborate carving of a serpentine dragon. As we approach the bottom, a large sound occurs as a mosaic rips itself from the wall and forms a guardian dragon. Beltin yells at the party to run and then yells at the dragon that we are friends in draconic. Sanna runs back up the stairs toward the door. The dragon wraps itself around the lattice work cage, its mere presence causing most of the party to be shaken. It then breathes fire up the stairs, which does not affect us thanks to our crystals. Gonoan moves back up a few stairs and take a defensive stance. Pike tells the dragon we don’t want to fight it and if it is begin compelled, we can help it. Obregon moves up by Sanna, as does Elaine and Brunj. Dragon hunting anyone?

December 13th, 2016

Pike goes to visit Kellick with Obregon and Brunge accompanying. Kellick is polite but abrupt about dismissing them for a private chat with Pike. Kellick takes Pike into his trophy room, The deck of many things is there as well as what looks like some type of handle made from clay. Kellick shows Pike a new acquisition, a ring. Pike expresses interest in what the handle is and Kellick tells him that he found it while adventuring with Tiira and Auric. It appears to be part of the protoype of a rod that was broken in to many parts. The ring is from a secret group of beings called the seekers. He believes that Pike has abilities that would be of use to this group he belongs to. They are the seekers and he is wearing a ring that looks like the one in the case, though newer. Pike agrees to meet some of them and Kellick asks the other 2 to wait. Pike is offered the ring and puts it on. Obregon decides to head home rather than wait, so Brunge goes as well. Kellick tells Pike that they will want him to keep a journal of his journeys with interesting finds included. They go to Gelds Maps, and Lazaryn Geld is there and wearing a seekers ring as well. The back of the shop is very splendid and full of journals and items which would be of interest to treasure hunters and adventurers. Geld leans in and whispers to Kellick that Pike seems to divulge a lot of information but he does believe he would be trustworthy. There are more members in another room, and they are Farlindell, Nestle a pale blond haired man, and Stillwar a dwarf. The seekers consider The scarlet brotherhood, and The silent ones, as enemies. There are many other members and they are known by their rings. Pike is expected to keep a detailed journal and to archive it annually. He is presented with a blank, thick journal. He returns to the house and tells the rest of the party that Kellick had something to show him. We have a ceremony the next day to receive our reward for killing Laurus Racknian. His head is mounted on a spike and revealed to the hundreds of people in attendance who are thunderstruck. We are presented with our coin in an elaborate sack by the head of Greyhawk, as well as a certificate noting that the order of the Shadow Phoenix is being recognized for this feat. We are introduced and cheered individually. Pike declares he is donating his share to the orphanage and begins to scope out a mark to pick pocket. He sees a 2600 gp bracelet that he likes and tries to snag it. The mark catches him and he begins to act drunk and claims he was just admiring it. The person looks skeptical but walks away without making a scene. Obregon notices him getting in to something but not exactly what. The crowd disperses and we make our way back to the ruins. Vexia awaits us in the top of Zagig’s tower and we tell her to meet us in the welcome chamber. We are able to make it back to the gaseous teleporter without incident. We have Pike attempt to figure out the wind trap and he locates the trap and knows it needs a word or phrase to deactivate. Sanna finds a ring of runes that Pike attempts to decode successfully. We get through the wind chamber and to the reception room and meet Vexia. She asks where to and upon learning that we want to explore the other side of the cavern, she tells us there are only deep black holes she believes lead to the underdark. She warns us that the red caps may have been setting traps for us so we decide to pass the promenade in gaseous form. We arrive at the cavernous area and move to the left which we had not previously explored. The walls here glitter with crystals and stalactites stab down and there is a large one that meets a massive stalagmite. We see the holes and Beltin floats over a hole which is very deep, hundreds of feet down. Obregon tracks around the hole and can tell that something like a dragon or aberration has been through here as well as humanoid undead. Beltin floats around and notices that the northern most hole does not go down nearly as far and then slopes toward the north. We regain our corporeal selves and decide to explore that hole. We spider climb down about 40’ and notice light coming from a side cavern and a larger cavern ahead of us. The main cavern contains a number of statues as well as stalagmites and stalactites. The walls are striated with silver and red. Arrayed around the floor are stone drow, driders, deep gnomes, umber hulks and giant spiders. The light is coming from a glowing ziggurat. This appears to be the answer to Vexia’s riddle. Elaine points out that the side chamber could be something dangerous. Pike moves up to the side cavern stealthily and sees this rooms walls, floors and ceilings are encrusted with thick beds of rock crystals, and here and there tiny patches glow as if on fire. He checks the ground in front of him, finding nothing and keeps moving forward but still finds nothing else. He returns and we decide to move toward the ziggurat with caution, Obregon attempts to tell what has been moving around and can tell that the creature moves between the exit and the ziggurat. We begin to move forward cautiously, eyes downcast in case of gaze attacks. The ziggurat’s first level is a vertical 30’, the next 2 angle inward and each rise 10’. A steep staircase rises to the apex upon which is a vertical, smokeless flame. There are also braziers of brilliant flame in the 4 corners of each level. We begin to approach and notice a large creature lying to one side that may be asleep. Sanna believes it is a cross between a dragon and a basilisk. Sanna shoots a disintegrate ray at it but misses. A large shadowy neck detaches itself from the side of the ziggurat and stretches forward, with over-large glittering eyes, the depths of which promise death. Obregon shoots at it, hitting it 6 times. Beltin breathes acid at it to no effect. Brunge moves up to the creature as Sanna hits it with a disintegrate ray, doing massive damage. Gonoan runs up to the creature as well. The creature gazes at Brunge but he avoids the gaze and then it begins to fly away. Gonoan and Brunge take attacks at its back, both hitting. Pike moves up and so does Obregon who puts 2 arrows in it, causing it to plummet to the ground.

November 29th, 2016

We close the door to this room and Obregon searches the room. He finds a secret door near the rear of the room but nothing else of interest. He manages to figure out how to open the door and it opens to reveal a mostly empty room with a few gnawed bones in the corner which have obviously not been disturbed in many years. He searches it thoroughly and manages to see through an illusory wall covering an adamantine coffer on a narrow shelf. As he picks it up, 3 green beams shoot out and 2 hit him, dealing a massive amount of damage. The coffer is disintegrated in the process. We do a little healing, spike the door and rest until morning. Pike awakens and Beltin heals him a little more. We begin to make our way out and decide to cut through the rooms off the promenade but it doesn’t go through the way we thought so we retrace our steps. As we make our way over the promenade, the redcaps spot us. We make a break for it and manage to get across without being scathed except Beltin who accepts some magic missiles while dodging some magic stones hurled by the redcaps. We make it back to the teleportation chamber. We cross when the gale force winds begin again; knocking Beltin off his feet and against the wall. We manage to extricate him and take our potions of gaseous form to reenter the hole. We come back out in the tower of magic. We move through the tower in gaseous form to avoid danger. Even after resuming our normal forms, we escape the tower without incident. We return to Greyhawk on an overcast 28th of Ready’reat. The guards refuse us entry with the creature Gonoan is carrying without a cage or leash. Obregon heads to Lord Henway’s estate to gather a way to transport the creature. He is escorted to Lord Henway who greets him warmly and is excited to hear about at least one of them being alive. He provides Obregon a collapsible cage to carry it in. We return directly and give him not only the living one but also the dead one. He is a little bummed that we weren’t able to bring Laurus Racknian back alive but gives us 2500 gp as a reward for the return of the Aurumvoraxes. We move towards the church of Boccob and ask after Riann. She has us put Sanna’s body in a special chamber and asks us to leave while she prepares. We find another priest to heal Pike. Obregon asks for a checkup since he hasn’t felt right after being disintegrated. He appears to be fine. After everyone is medically sound, we go shopping and restock our supplies. Pike checks in with the thieve’s guild and eventually Tiira shows up. He pays his dues and updates them on our adventures. He shows her Laurus Racknian’s belt and tells her how he killed him. She tells him the reward is 6000 gp but comes from the city not the guild. Beltin suddenly feels weird and notices his skin begins to melt off so he goes to the church of St Cuthbert and gets cured by Eritae. He then pulls out Laurus Racknian’s head and shows it to her. She asks where he was and if we knew what he was doing. He fills her in on what we found. She also asks about Iuz and his disappearance. She is concerned that his followers may act erratically and may mount an attack on the ruins to try and free Iuz. He leaves the head and she says we will get paid, most likely within a day. Pike meets with some clerics who answered his ad. Brunge is a half orc cleric who catches Pike’s eye. He is non-denominational and Pike tells him that we need him to destroy evil, do some healing and bust heads. They agree and shake on it and Brunge is coming by the house the next morning. Beltin heads to the diner and checks in with the owner. The owner tells him that a lot of the clerics, wizards and wealthy are hiring bodyguards and moving their valuables but he is not sure why. Also, Tenser has retired to his tower and Mordekainen hasn’t been seen lately. Sanna and Elaine compare notes about the ethereal plane though neither remembers much from their death experience. Sanna dismisses Brother Justin from service. Gonoan heads to the Green Dragon Inn and talks with Rikard, relaying tales of our battles. At some point Kellick comes in and after looking around approaches Gonoan asking after Pike. Gonoan says he is in town and alive but not sure exactly where he is. 7.785.56 gp

November 18th, 2016

Sanna suddenly begins to feel her throat close up and Beltin jumps forward to heal her but it doesn’t work. She realizes that she needs water to breathe and takes off for the pond below the balcony. We follow her and help her get in to the water. She can now breathe normally underwater and lets us know that she is under the effect of a water breathing spell and it will last for several hours. Pike, Vexia and Obregon return to the lab room. Pike manages to salvage a jar and collects some of the mucous in it. Obregon finds there is a head band (intellect +4) and ring (protection +2) on the lich. He removes them carefully and rinses off the slime. He puts the crown in the portable hole and Pike tries on the ring. Nothing obvious happens. They come back to the rest of us and after a few hours, Sanna’s breathing returns to normal. We head back to the lab room and search it. The north door opens to reveal several chains and manacles designed for humanoid and non-humanoid restraint alike. The south door opens on to a tiny reading room with a table and chair. There is a shelf above the table that contains books. They appear to be spell books so Sanna comes in and detects magic, which shows that the ring, and crown are but the books are not. The books go into the portable hole and Sanna puts on the head band. We move to the hallway that leads to the odd shaped room. Each alcove in this room contains a pair of manacles. Beltin moves in to the room and around the corner but nothing happens. Sanna is able to determine that some of the runes are to either keep out or keep in evil, others eliminate the need for food/water. Obregon uses his tracking ability and can see that there are some small bare hand and foot prints around this room but whatever it is hasn’t appeared to leave in quite some time. It appears that whatever made them has moved to the exit but can’t seem to leave. We search the room and in the first alcove Pike enters, he hears something move. Suddenly he feels dazed and activates his blink ring. Sanna notices and asks what’s wrong. Pike says something did something to him from a different alcove. Obregon tosses a thunderstone where Pike indicated the attack came from. But nothing seems to happen. Gonoan moves to that corner and peers in hard but doesn’t see anything. Beltin spits acid in to the corner as Sanna calls a flame sphere in to existence at the same spot. Obregon shoots 6 arrows in to the corner but with no apparent effect. Vexia moves and checks on Pike. Gonoan swings blindly, hitting nothing and Beltin does the same. Sanna tosses an ice knife in the corner which may have hit something. Suddenly, there is a small creature that looks like a brain with legs in the alcove with pike, which gets shot by Obregon immediately. It appears to be trying to crawl in to Pike but is baffled by the blinking. Sanna and Gonoan are hit by confusion. Vexia attempts to shoot at the creature but misses. Gonoan hits Beltin while his back is turned who turns and attacks the creature next to Pike. Sanna babbles incoherently while Vexia hits one with an arrow. Obregon starts filling the same one with arrows, finally killing it. Gonoan attacks Sanna while she attempts to attack the remaining creature but misses. Vexia attempts to shoot the hidden one but fails. Obregon moves back and attempts to spot the remaining creature but fails. Gonoan kills Sanna with a massive blow. Beltin spits acid again. Obregon manages to hit it with a couple of arrows while Gonoan hits it once as well. Beltin moves up and takes a defensive stance. The creature seems to be focusing on Gonoan. Vexia tries to send a magic missile at it but can’t seem to penetrate its defenses. Obregon hits with another 3 arrows, finally killing it. Gonoan manages to shake off the confusion and we try to regroup. We put Sanna’s body in the portable hole until we can get her back to Riann.

This room stretches on and the creek ends in another pool under a balcony 50’ off the ground. Obregon begins tracking as we head to check the waterfall. A number of creatures including drow and some type of reptilian creatures have been using this as a water source. We find the waterfall is just that and there doesn’t appear to be anything behind it. We move to the north pool and there is a wall built along the back with the balcony atop it. It appears to be similar to the promenade in construction. We spider climb up the cavern wall until we reach the balcony, which has a small lip around the edge. Pike sees 2 large armless creatures moving around the pool that appear to be looking for something but don’t seem to see us. Beyond the balcony is a long garden observatory with 4 alcoves containing statues of Boccob and ending in a passage that appears to turn to the east out of our view. We search the room but find nothing of interest. The passage turns south again and ends at a locked door which Pike picks handily. It opens to reveal a stone paved plaza. On the left is a long banquet table with delectable food and water gushes from a fountain carved as a trio of dolphins holding a nymph on the right. Immediately to our right is an 8’ bird cage containing some exotic looking birds. There is balcony overlooking a cityscape with the smells of cooking food and sounds of yet more exotic birds. There is a door on the other side of the bird cage as well as doors in the east and west walls. As we enter, behind us appears a plaza overlooking a cityscape instead of the doors we saw originally. Sanna determines there are multiple overlapping illusions in this room. We attempt to disbelieve the illusions, Beltin manages to disbelieve the cityscape behind us and Sanna disbelieves the buffet table. However, when Beltin approaches the table, he is overcome with a compulsion to eat the food and begins taking wisdom damage from it but can’t seem to stop. Sanna attempts to knock the food out of his hand but fails. She calls Gonoan over to pull him away but he is overcome by the compulsion as well and begins to eat. Pike puts 2 flaming bolts in to the table causing it to begin to burn. Obregon puts 4 arrows in to it and it collapses after which the boys manage to stop eating. Sanna pulls them both back and ends up near the fountain and has to resist the urge to drink and warns the rest of us against approaching it. Pike is checking the bird cage, finds it locked, picks it and the door swings open on to reveal a torture device with a gagged and bound skeleton with bits of flesh still clinging to its bones in place of the birds. He decides to not investigate any closer. He and Beltin go to check the other doors in this room as they are the only ones who can see them. Pike picks the lock on and opens the eastern door behind which is a small hallway with doors along in it which we suspect leads to rooms along the promenade. We close it and move to the other south door, pick it and it opens to a hallway which leads to an odd shaped room. This room has alcoves in the walls, and arcane runes which are giving off a faint blue light. We close that door and move to the western door. It is locked but opens easily to Pike’s nimble fingers revealing a room which reeks of raw meat, vinegar and decaying flesh. Spattered on the walls and floor are thick congealing puddles of translucent slime and tacky swathes of what appears to be greenish leather and glass jars of pale liquid are hanging from chains descending from the ceiling. In each of the 4 corners is a circular stone platform just over 3’ high piled with heaps of flesh, enormous fins and coils of entrails. There are doors in both the north and south walls. To the west is a long marble table upon which lies a partially dissected fish like head with 3 eyes and 4 long tentacles protruding from below and a glowing brain inside. Pike takes 2 shots at the brain, hitting once. The head cries out to leave its lair and it will allow us to live or else feel its wrath. Beltin steps up and sprays the room with acid while Sanna moves in and throws lightning around. A huge ghostly body that appears to be match the head rises in it’s spot. Beltin swings and hits it. Sanna steps away, throws a lightning bolt at it and then translocates out of the room. Pike begins to blink, shoots it once and then moves away. Gonoan is unable to figure out where we are going or what we are doing as the illusion still holds for him. Obregon puts 7 force arrows in to the fishly spectre and when that’s not enough to destroy it, he hastes himself and shoots 2 more arrows causing the ghostly apparition to dissipate. Beltin moves up and smashes the still glowing brain after which it ceases to glow. Sanna comes back up to the room and uses detect magic, and the whole room glows. Beltin leaves the room and heals some of Gonoan’s wisdom damage. Sanna can tell there are several magical auras near the ceiling in the area of the table. Pike moves up and shoots in to the area and thinks he may have hit something. Obregon moves in to the room and approaches one of the doors. Beltin asks after some more restoration and Vexia gives a potion to both Beltin and Gonoan who are then fully recovered. Sanna gets more information on the magic in the room while Pike puts 2 more bolts in the ceiling though they don’t seem to affect anything this time. Sanna gets hit by something, but is not sure what. At that point, Obregon starts shooting the ceiling as well and seems to hit something. A skeletal lich type creature falls to the floor and becomes visible in its torpidness. What other dangers await us in these rooms?

We finish searching the room and nests finding 39gp, 11pp, a jade ring with twisting vine band, bejeweled MW kukri (1200gp), scarab shaped as though it is impaled upon half a dozen pins (golembane, 2500gp). Pike tries on the ring but it doesn’t appear to be magical. There is also a secret door opposite where we entered. Pike manages to open it and we see a long, long, long hallway with openings along the right from time to time. Obregon can tell there is more than one redcap and that this is likely their lair and that they use the secret door regularly. Pike starts heading down the long hall, and when reaching the first passage sees there is a door recessed a few feet. The rest of us follow along, and see through the door an observation booth, with a pair of iron chairs overlooking the promenade. We spot a construct that looks like a bunch of gargoyles formed in to a juggernaut with 3 redcaps riding it and messing with its gears and levers. Down a ways is another that appears non-functional. We close the door and move down the hall, opening each door to make sure they are all the same, which they are. Until the end of the hall, there is a door around a corner which opens on to a high domed large plaza with grand staircases leading up to our location. There is a large cracked crystal in the ceiling and others in the walls. We hear someone moving in the hall opening the doors where we came from. We decide to become invisible and wait in one of the observation decks to see who it is. There is a redcap coming along the promenade, obviously looking for us. There is also another now on the opposite balcony, looking for us too. The one on our side calls out “warriors, come out and play”. We decide to reenter the hall and deal with the secret door. The red cap in the hall is leaving as we reenter. We follow it back through the door to the nest and to the door the first red cap came from. Pike hears what sound like a small creature singing on the other side and proceeds to open it. On the other side is a narrow room with a wooden table and 4 chairs in the center, a single arrow slit overlooking the promenade and a tall cabinet with its faced smashed in. There is a door that is ajar on the same wall we enter from and the singing is coming from that room. There is a redcap in this room as well as multiple types of weapons that appear for practice. The red cap is holding a sickle and smiles at us. Beltin runs forward and sprays it with acid while Pike puts a bolt in its belly. The redcap moves through the other door, saying you can’t take her and swinging at Beltin on the way by though it can’t connect. Obregon moves in and shoots it twice in the back, hurting it bad. Sanna blasts it with cold, killing it outright. In the next room is a light in a gilded cage but we can’t make out what it actually is. There are double bunk beds and a low table between them with the cage atop it. Gonoan looks at it but can’t tell what it is. Pike rushes in and opens the cage. Obregon knows this is some kind of outsider and possibly celestial. It appears to be an Eladrin to Sanna and likely good aligned. The light asks if we can help her, which we will gladly. She was captured by the red caps and transforms in to a leafy pixie. They are torturing her and trying to see how long it would take to starve her though she doesn’t need food. Her mistress, Shinda, sent her to find Ghaele Eladrin, who has gone missing. She isn’t powerful enough to battle the monsters here but has tracked her to the ruins. She has likely been captured as she hasn’t been sent to the afterlife. One clue she has is a cryptic verse “watched above by hawks of grey, and deep below old castles clay, guests of madness lost of kin, your mistress waits in zagigs den, under ziggurats crowned with fire, beyond the room of rainbows ire, lonely mistress filled with rage, caught within a pretty cage” The pixies name is Vexia and she believes the den is the tower of zagig. She offers to accompany us but doesn’t know how she can help. She offers us her ioun stone as payment but we don’t accept it. Obregon grabs the tooth left behind by the red cap and we toss the cage (600gp) in the portable hole. We head back through the waiting room, and in to the original hallway though Pike sits on the couch. All of a sudden, he feels something tug his circlet, and cap off and hangs them on the pegs. He grabs them and runs out. We approach the double doors at the end of the hallway and Pike opens them. The room behind them contains a circular table with a 2’ stone statue of a woman dressed in robes and wearing a featureless white mask, in her hand is a spindle from which dangles a single thread of gold. There is another set of double doors on one side which likely leads to the stage at the apex of the promenade. The statue is of Istus, goddess of fate. There is a door opposite where we entered. Sanna determines the statue is magical and believes if the string is pulled, you may get more information on your fate. Pike pulls the string and feels some dreadful fate awaits him soon. Sanna does it and feels excitement and anticipation as if some good luck was coming her way soon. Beltin feels luckier but gains 1 luck bonus on attack, saving throw and skill checks for 24 hours. Gonoan does it and feels lucky as Sanna did. We attempt to remove the statue but it resists our attempts. We move to the next room and the walls are a complicated mural decorated with details of the city of greyhawk as seen from above the river quarter and is very up to date. There is a secret door opposite where we entered and Pike manages to open it, revealing a 5’ space and another door which appears to be a secret door when entered on the other side. Pike can hear something is moving around on the other side and figures out how to open it. He pushes it open and there is an immense hall with short flights of stairs leading up with alcoves on each side holding statues of guardian warriors in each. On the second flight there are 2 gold cat like creatures loungin, (we believe they are Mr Henways missing pets). The octagonal room at the far end is lit with flickering light and a former gladiator which we suspect is Laurus Racknian. The cats look up and move to attack. Beltin moves forward and snarls at them to stand down, we know their master. Pike moves up between the cats, who miss with their claws, and tosses the fist of emirikol at Laurus to no effect. Sanna shapes a lightning bolt to hit both cats and Laurus. One cat launches itself at Sanna and hits her with a bite and and 5 of 8 claws. Obregon hits the other cat with 4 arrows, killing it. Gonoan runs up and kills the remaining cat. Beltin moves up and spits acid on Laurus while Pike runs up, draws his sword and swings at Laurus, though he manages to dodge. Sanna heals herself a little as Laurus begins to cast a spell. Pike hits him as he is casting, slicing open his abdomen and causing his entrails to spill across the floor. The look of surprise on his face as the Halfling steals his life is priceless. Sanna cuts off his head and puts it in the portable hole. Beltin attempts to stabilize the cats but only one is still alive. The dead one goes in to the portable hole while Gonoan carries the other. We search this room, and there are tapestries lining the walls depicting gladiatorial combat, a shelf of books and a table covered with parchment. The tapestries are of minor value, the statues appear to be real heroes not gods with plaques naming them: han-gra-dan, ganz yragerne, johydee, lyzandred, kelanen, slerotin. They appear to be hero-gods. The door leads to a modest bedchamber with nothing of interest, just a bed and chest. The parchments are fairly current newspapers from Grey hawk which begs the question how did they come to be here. Laurus has a champions belt(which Pike takes and puts on), breastplate of command(25400gp), bastard sword1 mighty cleaving(8300gp), potion of haste(750gp), buckler+2(4300gp), cloak of charisma +2(4000gp), and a ring of prot +2(8000gp). We ask Vexia why she went through the vortex but she doesn’t know what we are talking about, she tells us that she used alternate forms to move around and there is another way down here on the far end of the promenade where the grand stairs are. We move back to the double doors on to the stage, Pike becomes invisible and moves to the other door. He checks It, opens it and finds it leads to the map room. We head to the visitors room and Vexia offers to reconnoiter for us and discovers there is a way to get over the wall at the end of the promenade. We move through the dark hallway to the grand stair case and around to the top of the wall. Gonoan and Vexia move up and look over, seeing a ruinous battlefield marked with spattered blood and shattered stalactites. Purple tents lie smashed to the ground here and there. East and west are 2 passageways with the western lit with a faint yellow glow. We move to the top of the wall and spider climb down. We begin to move around towards the lighted cavern, checking the fallen tents, finding a larger command tent but it looks as though they have already been looted. The western passage has glowing clouds floating above the floor, smears of greasy yellow mold glowing dimly on the walls, large swathes of yellow fungus growing in beds along the floor, to the south is a waterfall from a cleft rock to a pool below and drains to the north from a narrow creek. A monstrous plant creature lumbers forward with vacant eyes, unerringly moving in our direction. Beltin steps forward and spits a line of acid at it while Obregon puts 6 force arrows in to it. Sanna puts a cloud around it and it moves forward a little. Pike puts a bolt in it and Gonoan charges it, accepting a hit and then missing with his swing. Suddenly, 2 undead bullits appear from underground and one attacks Obregon. Beltin attacks the bullit on Obregon, hitting once. Obregon puts 4 arrows in it and it falls in its tracks as Sanna blasts the other bullit and plant creature with cold. Pike moves up and puts another bolt in the plant. The plant sprays something at Gonoan which has no effect. It then hits him with 6 vine attacks. He responds by slashing it back 3 times. The bullit charges Pike but misses and Beltin charges it and hits. Obregon puts 6 arrows in the plant creature as Sanna drops a lightning ball on both creatures, killing both instantly. Let’s look around.

We head back to the fountain and move to the next level down. This room has been pulverized; the walls and doors are gone and the area is filled with rubble and debris. There are no clear paths around here. Obregon can tell there is something like a enormous worm living down here. No other creatures have been moving around down here and nothing besides the fountain is magical. We begin to move around and explore, following the trail of the creature. We squeeze through a tunnel which seems to lead to its lair. This room is covered in stone that appears to have come from the walls and floors of this level. Gonoan can tell that but is unsure if it’s used to contain the creature or appease it. He steps forward and we hear a rumble, as the ground in front of us begins to rise and fall. We can now see a large serpent moving our way. Beltin drinks an enlarge person potion. Elaine casts mage armor on herself while Pike lines up his shot and begins to blink. Sanna casts disintegrate, seriously hurting it. Obregon speeds himself up and takes 12 shots, hitting with 11. It appears almost dead at this point so Gonoan charges it, taking a bite from it and putting his axe deep into its skull, standing triumphant over its twitching corpse. Obregon tracks the creature back to its lair. We begin to search this area and after about an hour, we find a locked iron box. After another hour, we find nothing else. Pike unlocks the box and finds a silver serving set (500gp) and after some other looking, there is a simple spoon made of horn in the bottom. Elaine casts detect magic and the horn spoon is magical. She uses the monocle and determines it is a myrluns spoon (5400gp). Unsatisfied with that treasure, Beltin suggests cutting the worm open and see if it has anything in its innards. Gonoan cuts it open and within its bowels, we find nothing but a gagging stench. We decide to move back out of the ruins and send Elaine and Justin home and then enter the tower of magic. As we are moving through the tower, Sanna is aware of a stronger magical aura in the tower that increases her spell penetration. We move through the floors until we get to the golem forge and find incomplete gingerbread men on the tables. Gonoan breaks a piece off of one and a squeaky voice from the darkness calls out “I wouldn’t do that, that was a friend of mine”. We see a cute little thing made of dough. He says to not touch the raisins on the incomplete baked goods. He works for the chefs who are away, attacking a city or so he thinks. The gingerbread men are for attacking the city and the chefs should be back in an hour. We decide to wait for them to return. Sanna used the detect magic wand and finds the icing is magical. The yellow si magic circle vs chaos, greater magic fang from the blue, and cure moderate wounds in the red. Then we hear something call out to the marshmallow boy. The 3 chefs come in and ask who we are. Mo has a spoon, Larry has a keyring and Curly Joe isn’t carrying anything, and they are all wearing different magical looking aprons. They say they have to get to work and ask what we want. Beltin says we are here to stop the attack on greyhawk and hear they are part of it. They say they are just making the soldiers, Tasha is in charge and she’s in the tower of zagig. Obregon tells them we have to stop their work and they can leave or die. They ask after his union card and he shoots an arrow right past Mo’s head. Beltin leans forward and growls “run” at them. Gonoan cuts the head off one of the gingerbread men. The chefs begin running but fight about who gets to go first though eventually make their way out. We break all of their equipment and head on our way. Obregon attempts to get poppin frosh to accompany us but it seems he will lose his magic outside this room. We make it to the teleportation room and notice on the way that the damage through here has been repaired. We drink our potions and enter the hole. Gonoan is first, followed by Beltin. The ride is disorienting and time is impossible to gauge. As we exit, we are on a raised dais. There are stairs leading down and there are alcoves to both sides with bas relief carvings of snarling vortexes with teeth and limbs. Sanna comes through and feels nauseated though Pike follows and feels fine. Obregon brings up the rear and is feeling ok as well. Sanna determines that there is a strong wind moving between the 2 alcoves. We hang out until the gaseous form ends and then head to the door. As we move past the wind, it intensifies to gale force levels, effectively trapping us on this side. Pike checks the doors out and Gonoan opens the door which reveals a hallway with a door a short way down and double doors at the end. We move to the first door which has a sign “visitor reception, please enter” and Pike checks it, declares it safe so Gonoan opens it. It opens on to a shockingly bright blue room with a strange human faced sun on the ceiling, and a dust covered couch facing a simple desk and chair. There is a line of wooden pegs above the couch and a door opposite where we are standing. As we enter, a soft chime rings out and the sun opens its mouth and says “master zagig will be with you shortly, please be seated”. We move to the next door and check it, hearing some strange movements behind it so Gonoan opens it and we see a vast long promenade below the walkway we are now on. There is a door at the end of the walkway. The large area has a stage with stairs to the floor with walkways around it. We can hear rhythmic crashes in the distance which stop suddenly when we cross the walkway to the next door. Gonoan opens it and we see a hall in front of us and one to the left. The one in front of us ends in a circular room and the left leads to a door. There are 5 stinky nests made of rags and bloody clothes around an iron cauldron filled with congealed blood. We find some baubles as we begin searching when we are beset upon by a goblin like thing with a red cap. Pike shoots twice at it, hitting once. Sanna hits it with ice knife. Obregon moves down by pike and hits it twice with arrows. Pike hits it with another bolt. Beltin runs up and smacks it with his morning star. Sanna misses with an orb and it turns to flee, accepting a hit from Beltin. It closes the door behind it.

To the south is a door, to the east is a hall with lots of rubble and dead bodies, to the north the hall ends in an odd shaped room with more bodies, and to the west is a small room with moldy straw beds. Obregon heads down the eastern hall following the tracks of a large humanoid, around the rubble, until he comes to an open trap door where the passage turns to the south. He can see the glint of gold and gems at the bottom along with the scaly remains of some dead snakes. He gets the rest of us as it appears only Pike is actually small enough to reach in to get the treasure. Pike checks the trap and finds nothing to worry about so climbs down, while Obregon shoots an arrow in to the area to ensure nothing is still alive. Pike begins reaching in to grab the treasure and pulls out 25 gp, 38sp, a small purple amethyst (100gp), and a gold ring the size of a bracelet. He attempts to put the ring on and just before it goes around his hand, it shrinks and fits on his finger. Brother Justin asks to see the ring and says there are some sigils on it but none of us can read them. The hall continues and there are a couple of doors along it. The tracks continue on as well but don’t go through the doors. Pike checks the east door, finds no traps and Gonoan kicks it open. There are bodies on the floor which begin to stir and rise. Beltin steps in and spits acid on these wights as Sanna hits them each with a ray, and down they go. We search the room and find nothing but there is another door on the other side of the room. Pike checks it, finds nothing, so Gonoan kicks it but falls backwards instead. Beltin reaches over and attempts to pull it open but its stuck. We work together and force it open. We are now looking at another small room with 3 more wights who are waiting for us and another door. Beltin again steps forward and spits acid, but Sanna chooses to do nothing. Gonoan moves in and splits one in half with a mighty blow. One of the wights steps to the far door, bangs on it and calls out in an odd language. Obregon puts an arrow through its forehead. Pike puts a bolt in the neck of the remaining one. Pike listens at the next door and hears movement while Obregon can tell that there has been nothing moving in this room in a really long time. Gonoan kicks open the door, revealing 4 more wights. Beltin steps up and spits acid, killing 3 of them. Obregon turns the last one in to a pincushion. We search the rooms and find a chest. It is unlocked and untrapped. Elaine casts detect magic around the rooms but sees nothing. The chest contains 2300gp, 11500sp, 5gems (1000gp each). We put the chest in one of the portable holes. We head to the other door in the hall and hear a couple creatures behind it. Gonoan attemtps to kick it in but just opens it regularly after that doesn’t work. Behind it is a couple of wights on their feet, ready to rend our flesh. Obregon puts the first one down while Sanna hits the other with 3 rays, obliterating it. Gonoan opens the next door which is stuck, revealing another room which is empty. Sanna runs up to the door and attempts to punch the door open with her fist of stone but fails. Gonoan opens it and we see 6 wights awaiting us. Sanna blasts them with electricity, frying them all instantly. We search these rooms, and find some old musty books. They appear to be the notes and research of Shodei the illusionist. We put them in the portable hole. We continue to follow the tracks, explore as much as we can, without finding much of interest and eventually end up back at the fountain. We move to the door in the south wall which Pike checks, and deems safe. Gonoan opens the door, revealing an art gallery. There are multiple alcoves in this L shaped room, each holding a beautiful work of art. Pike warns against touching anything. Sanna casts detect magic around the room, and learns all of the art is magical and cursed. There are 3 that are particularly interesting, one shows a 3 dimensional image of Sanna’s childhood home as it should look now. She has Obregon look and he sees his hometown as well. Another is a jeweled statue of a noble woman dripping in jewels with an amulet around its neck. The 3rd are 2 exquisite elvish dancers in a faint ball of light that is floating around. We choose not to touch anything. Pike is looking for the secret door he knows is here, finds and opens it. There is a long set of stairs descending into a dim room which hasn’t been much disturbed except when Pike came through here previously. He tells us that this will eventually lead to the tower of magic. We decide to go back to the fountain and go down another level. We come out in another room, with a black pyramid in the room to the east illuminated by a magical point of light, to the west is a door, north is a passage the tees off, south is a long passage with rubble and doors. Obregon looks around and can tell the large tracks we were following appear here and go south but nothing else appears to be moving around. We move toward the pyramid room and see there is a door to the north and a passage to the east. Sanna detects magic and knows the pyramid is a gate to an outer plane of the abyss. We wisely choose to skirt it and move to the hall and begin exploring. This area contains Zagig’s idea of a hotel. With areas designed for many different types of creatures, old furnishings and even some of his old artifacts. There are some undead wandering around this place and we hear some other creatures moving around with either a hard shell or armor. We move towards them and come across 6 umber hulks. Pike hits one with a bolt. Beltin readies himself while Obregon starts shooting, putting 5 arrows in the first one, and it drops in its tracks. As the next one comes around the corner, it hits Beltiin and Gonoan with a gaze attack, confusing them. Sanna drops a cold ball on 3 of them, killing them all. Justin cast shield of faith on Sanna. In his confusion, Gonoan hits Sanna. Pike hits a hulk with 2 bolts, and then Beltin hits Sanna as well. Obregon finishes off the front one then using his belt of battle pours a potion of healing down Sanna’s throat. The last umber hulk flees. Sanna moves away and drinks a healing potion. The rest of the group moves out of range with Obregon melding in to the stone; leaving Gonoan and Beltin babbling incoherently. They alternate babbling and hitting each other for a short while longer until the confusion passes. The last hulk moves back up to which Gonoan charges and hits it. Obregon hits it with a couple of arrows and Beltin finishes it off with acid. Time to regroup.

An unseen servant delivers Vayn’s journal to the house with instructions to take it to a special reading room at the guild. Sanna and Elaine follow the directions and find themselves in a room with a multitude of different lamps, one of which has a permanent dispel magic on it. Reading by this light, they are able to see what Vayn wrote. Meanwhile, Pike meets Riann at the church who has a novice healer check him out. They question him as to why he feels something is wrong. He doesn’t have anything specific, he just worries. They have him disrobe and check him over, taking samples of saliva and hair and such. Riann tells him that he has a clean bill of health and they can’t find anything wrong. He asks about protection and she tells him that would take a number of different things. Sanna reads the journal and finds most of the entries are petty accounts of Vayne’s misfortunes, long lists of belongings taken from him as payment for multiple resurrections (which he would one day like to reclaim from the church of Iuz) and ravings against his superiors, in particular a wizard named Null whom Vayne particularly despises. He never mentions Iuz by name but it seems obvious that the Old One is in fact the subject of many of Vayne’s thinly veiled metaphors and satires. The most important information in the journal concerns the simulacrum of Iggwilv. In one entry, Vayne gloats about a great treasure he found while skulking about the depths of Iuz’s palace-a comb that had fallen behind a dresser. Caught in its times was a single dark strand of a woman’s hair –but not just any woman’s. This hair was from the mother of Iuz, the witch queen Iggwilv herself! The entry further describes how he used a scroll of simulacrum on the hair a few days after his arrival in Castle Greyhawk. Only 12 hours later, Vayne had a unique minion, a simulacrum of one of the most powerful wizards known to Greyhawk. A subsequent entry describes how Vayne knew from his studies that the real Iggwilv spent some time in the dungeons below the Tower of Zagig as the great wizards’s apprentice, or perhaps his lover. Another mentions that although the simulacrum retained none of the original Iggwilv’s memories, he knew that some of the defenses Zagig had left behind might well be fooled into thinking that the wizard’s’ ancient ally had returned to the tower. Other entries record how Vayne sent the simulacrum through the transportation device with orders to explore the region and gather resources for the coming army (and included details on how to use the transport) At the end is a single oblique reference to a true mission for the simulacrum but the journal entries do not elaborate further. She then researches the orb of opposition and learns that it is a unique item and must function differently than a mirror of opposition which causes you to fight your double to the death. We determine to use mage hand to grab the orb and get a box to store it in. Beltin meets with Eritae and tells her our adventure. She shares with him that there have been rumors from the mages guild that the church of boccob may be involved somehow with Iuz’s plan. Whether directly or by just not trying to stop it, this could be trouble. She asks for any information we may uncover about what they are planning next. Sanna walks the streets, attempting to recruit followers of Wee-Jas and finds a gullible priest to tag along. The party heads out to the ruins on the 26th of Ready’reat and Elaine and Brother Justin accompany us. We reach the tower without event and enter Zagyg’s tower through the front door. We hear what sounds like ogres in the distance but they don’t molest us. There are also newly fresh corpses as we reach the trapdoor to below. Pike checks it, and declares it safe. When we approach the portcullis trap, Pike finds and disables it. We head down a couple more landings when a dozen armored trolls attack our rear from behind an illusory wall. Obregon takes 2 shots and hits once. Beltin moves to the back while Justin moves away to the front. The front troll hits Beltin and takes acid splash in return. Elaine casts magic missile at the first troll as Pike hits it with a bolt. Sanna lights up the front 2 trolls, dropping the first one. Obregon puts 2 arrows in the 2nd, dropping it and then seriously injures the 3rd with 4 arrows. Beltin spits acid down the hall, killing one and injuring 3 others. The front one charges and attempts to hit Beltin but can’t connect. The second one moves next to Beltin and accepts a hit from him. Elaine casts a ray of frost at the front one while Gonoan rages and starts whaling on the front one, dropping it. Pike hits one with a bolt while Sanna smacks the one next to Beltin with a ray. Obregon finishes 2 more off. The next troll charges, taking a hit from Beltin and then swings a claw at him, missing badly. Gonoan swings and misses horribly but recovers and cuts it down anyway. Pike bounces 2 bolts off of the next one’s armor and Sanna puts a sculpted electric ball on top of the 5 remaining trolls. Obregon takes out the next 2 and Beltin hits them with acid again. The remaining 3 run away. We continue down the stairs until we hit a landing where the rest of the stairs are blocked by rubble so we relocate the secret door. We open it and are back where the Orogs and orcs were located. We use the book of teleporters and find a fountain that will take us lower in Zagygs tower. Beltin jumps in and as he sinks, he vanishes from sight. He spider climbs back up and is in a new chamber. It is round with 3 open halls and one door. The rest of the party follows and climbs out. Which do we choose?

We head back to Greyhawk and manage to arrive in early evening with no violent encounters. We head home, find Elaine at the house and Beltin notices that a couple of his street kids are hanging around. Elaine feels that as people are learning where we live, they walk by to look. She notices the house has been watched but feels it is protective not malevolent. Pike makes some advances on Elaine but she politely rebuffs him. Beltin goes back out and meets with the boys. One of them does all the talking with the others keep their distance. They don’t have any new information. They receive a silver piece and are told to go to the back of the diner and they will be fed. He then goes to the diner and meets the owner who tells him that the church of Boccob seems to be upping security though the church of St Cuthbert and the other churches in town are not. Beltin tells him to keep his eyes open and gives him a gold. Meanwhile, Obregon takes a bath, after whom Gonoan uses the same water to bathe. Sanna is trying to convince Elaine to become a cleric of Weejas so he doesn’t have to. Elaine looks at her strangely and excuses herself until “Sanna comes to her senses”. Beltin and Gonoan end up at the Green Dragon Inn, where Gonoan gets drunk and buys for the house. Beltin speaks with Rikard and shares a synopsis of our recent adventures. He tells him about the register and port book. Beltin notices that it’s a little slow still but sees at least 4 people that seem to recognize him. One of them is Kellick who is playing chess but takes a moment to nod a greeting before returning to the game. After a while Tenser shows up and they exchange greetings. They grab a table and Beltin shares more of the story especially about Vain and Iuz. Tenser is impressed by our accomplishment. He would like to know everything about Vain and Iuz and wants to know now. He asks us to bring what we found to the mages guild and he will be waiting in one of the lower libraries. Beltin goes home and gets Sanna, gathers up the books and such we found. Pike jumps on the train and comes along. As we go, we notice Tiira and kellick heading in the direction of our house and they attempt to act casual about it though Kellick is not a good actor. Tiira calls out to Pike who stops to chat for a moment. We leave them and head on to the mages guild. Upon arrival, we appear to be expected and are escorted to one of the libraires by a couple of dwarves who close and lock the doors behind us. Mordekainen and Tenser are waiting for us. They say it would not be wise to talk here and we are teleported to another area. Mordekainen and we are in the room with the multi-colored columns we found when seeking the key to tower of magic. Then, as before, we climb through one column to the room where we first me Mordekainen. He tells us that something celestial has happened if a god has been taken against his will. He reminds us that there were gods trapped in the ruins. Mordekainen and the 8 located the gods once and then he attempted to kill Iuz which led to the greyhawk wars. He says that we have what we need though we are wondering what that is. He says it’s our moxie but doesn’t want to tell us any more about the threat so we don’t make the same mistakes he did. He wants us to return to the ruins and continue to explore. Beltin asks if he can help us speed up our magic items so we can get back quicker but he repeats that we have what we need. Mordekainen suggests maybe we split up if some don’t want return and he seems to know how fate is following us. We give the items to Mordekainen who peruses them and thanks us for showing him the book and asks that the other items be returned to the library. He offers to buy them from us if our only goal was to sell them and he will return them to the library. He dispels the enchantment on the journal and recommends we take the time to study it. We agree to return the journal to him after we are finshed with it. He then returns us to where we came in and we head back home. The next day we sell our gear, and order some new. Pike and Obregon go to see Kellick and are ushered in to see him. He escorts us in to another room and Pike tells him about our adventures. Kellick offers to Pike to do some pilfering that may upset the thieves guild if he is looking for a new adventure. Pike is looking for stuff on white plume mountain and may do something for kellick and then draw a card from the deck of many things. Then they return to the house. Sanna apologizes to Elaine who acts cool. Then pike starts hitting on her again upon which Elaine asks him to walk with her. She then tells him that she is uninterested and he is not edgy enough for her. Then offers to set him up with someone who he may actually like better. That conversation goes nowhere. A couple of days later, Riann stops by and wants to talk. She tells us that the priests of Iuz can no longer cast their spells. She asks how we did it. We tell her what happened though we didn’t do it ourselves and then tell her more about our adventures. She seems impressed. We pass the next week or so quietly, collecting the gear we have ordered and attempt to decide our next move…

We move down the darkened hallway, and after a short ways, we notice that there is a spot of increased darkness on the left wall. It appears to be an opening radiating cold and/or negative energy. Gonoan steps up to the opening, hears something but can’t see anything through the darkness. We begin to move into the room, when there is a burst of cold energy that smacks Gonoan and Beltin as a trap goes off. They rush forward and come out of the darkness and into the midst of an old chapel, complete with rows of pews. At the head is a statue of Iuz with a hobgoblin in front of it, whose eyes are full of malice. Lining the walls are six skeletons which look to be cold and dark. The hobgoblin cries out and points toward the exit, causing the skeletons to begin to move. Obregon moves out of the darkness and attempts to shoot at the hobgoblin but can’t seem to target it so he shoots one skeleton twice. 2 skeletons step up to Beltin and one hits him with a claw. Gonoan turns and hits one of those 3 times. It begins to crumble and then explodes hurting Gonoan and Beltin while healing the other skeleton. Sanna steps up, ducks a claw attack and casts a lightning bolt around the room, hitting each of the creatures. Pike realizes that the other demon is still around and attempts to locate it but can’t find it in the darkness. A skeleton moves over and hits Obregon with a claw. Its partner hits Sanna with 2 claws but misses with a bite. The hobgoblin moves down from the dais and casts a spell with no apparent result. Beltin moves to the wall and sprays 2 skeletons and the hobgoblin with acid, destroying one skeleton and causing another explosion. The last 2 skeletons move up and each hit Gonoan with a claw. Obregon casts arrow storm and hits each remaining creature, killing the hobgoblin. He then activates his battle belt and hits them all again, causing 2 more to detonate. One skeleton hits Gonoan 3 times, taking acid damage and then explodes when it gets hit in return. Pike fires off 2 bolts at the last skeleton but they pass through the open ribcage. Gonoan finishes it off, accepting another explosion. Obregon finds the hobgoblins MW full plate, great sword in a scabbard, 3 black onyx, and some silver powder. We search the room and find nothing. Sanna casts fist of stone, punches the statue of Iuz in an attempt to destroy it but instead trips a trap which blasts her. Obregon finds the demons tracks and it has moved back and forth several time s but appears to have gone back the way we came. Pike believes the demons have been tasked with keeping us from leaving. We head further down the hallway until it begins to shrink smaller with a small hole in the end of the wall surrounded by runes. Beltin checks the book we found about teleporters but it doesn’t contain any info on this. Sanna believes you have to be gaseous or an elemental to pass through while Pike thinks the runes indicate this is intended for high level wizards only and leads to somewhere powerful. Sanna gets fed up with thinking and sticks her finger in the hole and just manages to pull it back out before it gets yanked off. We decide to hold off on further exploration of this phenomenon and head back to the teleporters. When we enter the teleportation room, Gonoan hears something moving. He can’t see it but it reaches out and touches Gonoan, casting darkness on him. Pike moves into the room invisibly while Beltin moves as well and breathes acid on the demon. Gonoan punches it futilely to which it responds by clawing him twice. Sanna casts 3 rays at it, hitting once. Pike hits it once from the corner while Beltin hits him once but doesn’t do any damage. Gonoan glares at it as it hits him with a claw. Obregon puts it out of its misery. Back through the teleporter…

We begin to look around; suspecting someone else must be present. Pike moves over to the fireplace and searches it, finding a crystal encased scorpion, 2 potions(bears endurance), and an oversized leather bound book. Gonoan keeps watch outside the room and is able to see the 2 demons that ran away watching from down the hall while Sanna pulls out the wand of detect secret doors. She finds one on the right hand wall. Suddenly, a cube of energy covers the room and Pike takes a little damage from it. Then the secret door opens and a spike covered demon is standing there. Obregon casts a spell and Pike tosses the fist of emirikol at it. It hits and lights the demon up like a Christmas tree. Gonoan charges it and gets in a decent hit that doesn’t hurt it quite as much as expected and he takes some damage in return. Sanna hits it with an orb of electricity doing some good damage and temporarily entangling it. Beltin breathes acid on it and catches Gonoan and Obregon as well though none of them seem to be very hurt by it. The demon attempts to hit Beltin but is thwarted by his impressive armor. Obregon hits it with 4 arrows, one of which goes through its throat causing it to start choking and then disappear. Pike grabs up the valuables on the mantle while Obregon moves in to the hallway to keep an eye on the other demons. Pike opens the book and there are many names listed but most recently Mallard-plikt, Igwilv, Arac, Alluvia Mauer, Thessalar, Robillar, Eli Tumerast, Mordekainen, Tenser, Bigby, Rigby, Warness Starcoat, and Vain. Pike signs all of our names followed by our company name. Pike then goes to the secret door, figures out its fastening and opens it. Inside this medium sized room is a single long shelf with 5 books, a metal box, 3 bone scroll tubes(vision, freedom, analyze dweomer), and a large green leafM in a wooden and glass display case. There are also the tattered remains of an easy chair. He checks out the box which is steel and is locked. He attempts to pick the lock but fails, even after several attempts. He then checks out the leaf which appears to be crafted and not natural. He opens it and picks up the leaf which he notices has a strange texture. Three of the books are spell books, one is ornate, metal and locked(boccobs blessed book) and the other is black leather. He picks the locked book, opens it and it appears to contain blank pages. He concentrates real hard and thinks it may have some hidden spells. The leather book contains notes on magical portals in the tower. These all go in to the portable hole. We move out and see a large landing with wide staircase going down with walkways on both sides. Both walkways have 3 doors. We know the first door comes from the library so we check the second door which we open and this chamber is thickly carpeted with a bed and dresser. Pike and Obregon search the bed chamber and find nothing of interest. The other 4 doors contain identical rooms. We move to the staircase which goes down in to a corridor which turns left. Beltin calls to the demons that we gave them time to flee so their deaths are not our fault. Gonoan can tell they are speaking to someone down the hall and telling them that we are coming. Sanna jumps out front, throws a cold lightning bolt and has it bend around the corner. Something screams in pain and Beltin and Gonoan step forward and prepare to meet them. The demons are confused about how the lightning came around the corner and warn someone that we could turn invisible. Sanna tosses a ball of cold at the turn while Beltin and Gonoan move a little closer. Gonoan can hear them moving further down the hallway. Pike moves to the corner, peeks around and sees more magical darkness. The demons move back our way as Sanna moves up but she is unable to locate any of them. Beltin moves up and spits acid down the hallway. Gonoan moves next to Beltin and Obregon moves next to Pike and casts barkskin on himself. One demon attacks Beltin with 2 claws, hitting once. Another attacks Gonoan twice as well, hitting once. The other waits on room to attack. Pike takes 2 shots, hitting once but it did no damage. Sanna tosses an orb but misses. Gonoan swings 3 times, hitting twice. Obregon puts 2 in each of the 3, killing 2. The last one runs away, further in to the darkness…

Pike looks inside the portable hole and sees a bookcase, work bench, and cot. There are several potion bottles on the bench and a number of books on the shelf. He enters, leaving his haversack outside. He checks the bench, and finds 10 potion bottles which he moves outside the hole. There are 4 cure serious, 3 lesser restoration and 3 gaseous form. He moves to the book shelf and there are 5 spell books on it as well as a journal on the cot. He removes these also. There are several barrels of dried food and water which appear to be just that. Sanna checks the items for magic and finds the journal and potions are magical. The journal has a faint aura of transmutation which Sanna then opens. This appears to contain mundane magical research notes of which the last 6 pages are blank. She believes the magic is covering its true purpose. Beltin decides to try teleporting through the wall of force with his boots to see what is on the other side so we troop back to that hall. As we pass through the vestibule, Gonoan hears what sounds like something on the other side of the sealed double doors as we pass by. When we get to where the wall of force was, we discover it has dissipated. There is another control room here which still is beyond our ability to use. Our next decision is to destroy the control rooms to deny them to Iuz’s forces. We remove the gems and valuable looking parts and destroy the rest. We are stuck in this area for 23 hours but nothing happens. The morning of the 12th of ready’reat, Pike opens the doors out with his knock spell and we hear something on the other side. Gonoan pushes them open and we see 5 gaunt humanoid creatures with black leathery skin and a horn poking up from behind their ears. Looking past their large mouth full of teeth, there appears to be a red jelly like slime covering their body. Obregon begins shooting #1 and hits 5 times causing it to fall unconscious. Pike begins to blink and Sanna moves up, one demon claws her, interrupting her spell. Demon 5 causes an area of darkness while Beltin spits acid down the hallway hitting all 5 demons and Sanna. Gonoan hits one hard while #3 moves up and barely misses Sanna with a claw attack. #2 attacks Gonoan but only hits once in 3 tries as #4 starts to sneak away. Obregon puts 4 arrows in 3, killing it and 2 arrows in 2. Pike fires a crossbow bolt but misses. Gonoan attempts to begin a grapple with 2, but takes a claw to the face instead. Sanna throws a cold fireball, killing #2 and hurting 4 & 5. 4 & 5 proceed to run away. We move down the hallway in the direction they ran. There are double doors on the right, a door at the end, the hall turns to the left with an open door a few feet down and a couple more doors down on the right. Pike checks the double doors and opens them quietly, and we see a grand chamber with black red carpet and tapestries on the wall. There is a large metal fountain featuring nymphs and succubi and a large bookcase filled with tomes and crystal balls, statuettes of animals and demons, skulls on silver holders and other random items. There is a circular oak table with 4 chairs and a large bed with silk sheets. 8 tapestries, old but unimportant books, 4 crystal balls, silver statue (demonic dogs chasing a cat around a tree), jade elephant statuette, ivory succubus with sapphire eyes, large glowing marble statue of a fungus female creature, 7 skulls (3 human, 2 elf, 1 unkonwn animal, 1 unknown all on silver stands). Nothing is magical. Sanna does take the silk sheets off the bed as we put all of this in the new portable hole. We move to the next door and Pike hears something on the other side which he thinks is likely humanoid. Gonoan changes places with him and opens the door with a crash. On the other side is a library with a table and chairs in the center with a large platinum candelabra on it. The shelves are mostly bare and there is fireplace with several mantles holding strange objects but no creatures obvious. Obregon can tell a demonic type creature has used this door when suddenly a beholder appears with its main eye closed. Sanna pulls out the wand of greater invisibilty, turns invisible, and tells the beholder we didn’t mean to disturb it. It says we need to leave its library as it is the guardian. Beltin asks whose library this is. “It used to Zagygs, but now it is Vain’s. “ Vain is dead, can we look around?” It replies “no, I said go away”. The beholder shoots a black beam at Gonoan but misses. It then fires off a couple others and yells at him to attack anyone who comes through the door. Gonoan shakes his head wondering why it would say that. Pike tosses the fist of emirikol at it, it sounds like it hit but we can see it lying on the ground beyond it. It seems like it must have passed through it even though we saw it hit. Gonoan swings at it 3 times, hitting once and once he thought he should have hit but didn’t. Obregon puts an alchemist arrow near it and it appears to be on fire. Sanna casts detect magic with her wand and detects auras around the creature??. Beltin attempts to disbelieve the beholder but fails. It then shoots another black beam at Sanna but misses since she is invisible. Pike hides in the bedroom as Gonoan bull rushes it, but he just bounces off. Obregon casts a spell and Sanna detects the beholder is illusory and states it out loud. She walks up to and through the beholder but we can’t see it because she is invisible. Beltin manages to disbelieve it after hearing Sanna and walks through it in to the library. The beholder illusion vanishes, a voice says “very well” and Pike walks in to the room followed by Gonoan and Obregon. Let’s see what we have here.

Vain apparently came out of one of the other double doors, behind which is a set of stairs going up. Sanna attempts to figure out how to use the circles on the floor but it seems that they must be controlled elsewhere. She sticks her hand through the circle around Pike and can reach through without consequence. Pike is able to move out of the circle while Beltin moves towards the illusionary door in response to Gonoan yelling about multiple Vains in the hallway. As soon as he sees them, he lets loose with a cone of acid and they all act like they have been hit but still can’t tell which one is the original. Obregon casts arrow storm and despite being certain he hit all 5, only 2 actually strike true, eliminating those 2 images. This jack ass has some good protection. Vain touches the ground with his bone staff causing bone spikes to sprout from the ground. Beltin and Gonoan take a little damage from it which causes Vain to seem disappointed that it wasn’t more. Gonoan steps up and swings at one of the Vains and successfully hits. Pike uses the rope of climbing to scale one of the dome covered balconies and finds that it is solid. Beltin moves up and hits a Vain one time, causing an image to disappear. Obregon starts shooting arrows, and resembling a pin cushion, the real Vain falls to the floor. Pike starts towards the fallen wizard when suddenly, the summoning room’s air takes on an almost electric feel. Flickers of black fire line each living and dead creature in the room, the fires around the circles flicker out and a moment later a 20’ tall humanoid demon manifests in black flames with a burning great sword. It looks around until it spots Vain “out of my way, worms of Greyhawk” and walks to him. Gonoan and Sanna are dazed by its presence as it approaches Vain. Obregon casts a spell while Pike goes after the demon. The demon swings at him, knocking him on his ass. Pike goes on to grab on to his leg and sends a jolt in to him with his shock gloves. The demon doesn’t even seem to notice and keeps going. Beltin grabs the bone wand and turns towards the noise. The demon keeps moving, swatting Sanna and Gonoan out of the way on his way by. Vain’s corpse stands itself up as if it’s a marionette, walks to the demon and falls to his knees. “And again you fail me Vain, it seems I must do everything myself.” Vain pleads “Mighty Iuz, have mercy, I shall not fail you again.” “Your service is at its end pest, but don’t thing you can rest. Your soul owes me many more deaths before I will forget the insult of you servitude. Die again fool and await my further wrath in the city of skulls” We can hear agonizing screams as if his soul is being ripped apart. Iuz bellows with laughter and takes him by the throat and squeezes until his bones break and his head falls to the floor. “Don’t think his failure is your success” Iuz grumbles. Sanna says “but it kind of is”! Pike drinks a healing potion but feels that there may be something wrong with it. He yells at Iuz “I’m going to find the thing that’s most important to you and I’m going to steal it” Iuz begins to charge Sanna “Time to die” when suddenly a look of fear appears on his face as 9 spectral tentacles arise from one of the circles in the floor. They unerringly grab him, enveloping his form which begins to stretch and distort as he is pulled back through the circle. We begin healing ourselves and looting Vain’s body. We find the bone staff, ring of protection +1, headband of intellect +2 and a portable hole containing a cot and personal effects. We decide to go up the stairs through the double doors. It goes in to a corridor that goes around the summoning room but a short ways down it terminates at a wall of force. We look around for a way to turn it off but don’t find anything. We decide to rest in the vestibule and rest unmolested. Pike uses the knock feature of his lock picking ring to open the door opposite the one Vain came from. It opens to stairs up to a corridor heading around the circumference of the summoning room with 2 control rooms that correspond to the enclosed balconies. In the first one, Sanna notices that an image of her appears in one of the summoning circles down below. The balconies covering appears to be a one way wall of force. She figures out how to turn the image off but is struggling to understand the other controls. She then goes to the second alcove, her image appears in a circle again and she turns it off. Pike attempts to figure the controls out but feels like he may be making errors. Will we figure this out?

The human looks a bit disheveled and eccentric, with a raven on his shoulder. He asks who we are and what is our business here. Pike asks him who he is and why is he here. Sanna gets a feeling like there’s a stronger presence of magic in this area. She believes this is the generals boss, likely a powerful war mage and leads one of Iuz’s armies and that his name is Vain. When Sanna reveals that, Vain says that we must be enemies so we will soon be gone from this world. Pike says we should be sure of what we are doing and Sanna should learn more about this situation. Beltin moves around and breathes acid, hurting 2 of the creatures but doesn’t seem to affect the mage or his raven. Obregon shoots 2 arrows at the mage to no effect, then 2 at the raven with the same result, and the last 2 at one of the giants who actually seems to be damaged. He yells out that the mage has some kind of protection and his arrows aren’t hurting him. Gonoan moves towards the closest one which hits him with its snap tong and pulls him close causing some damage. Sanna detemines that the rings are summoning circles set on passive so the creatures can attack through the large circle but can’t exit it. The raven becomes invisible, Vain tell the rutterkins to attack the archer. The first one attacks Gonoan 3 times, doing some damage and taking some acid splash in return which does not appear to have any effect. One of the others moves up and hits him also, while the other moves up and hits Obregon. Pike lines up a shot as Beltin moves up and hits the mage, appearing to hurt him. Obregon puts 3 arrows in the most hurt creature and then steps out of range and drinks a healing potion. Gonoan whales on the one in front of him and bellows victoriously as it falls. The mage begins casting a spell allowing Beltin to hit him again. Obregon is then attacked by something he can’t see but shrugs off whatever it tries. The raven appears next to him. Sanna moves and tosses an electrical flame strike on one giant and the mage, though the mage seems unaffected. The rutterkins beat up on Gonoan, who is beginning to look pretty bloody. Pike tosses the eye of emirikol at one demon but it does not affect it. Beltin hits the mage a couple of times. Obregon shoots at the raven and hits a couple of times. The raven claws at Obregon but again fails to affect him. Vain starts casting a spell, Beltin manages to hit him once more but the spell still goes off. A phantasmal killer appears next to Beltin but he manages to resist it and it disappears. Gonoan hits one rutterkin 3 times and then translocates out of the way. Sanna throws a cold lightning bolt at the 2 demons, hitting both and dropping one. The remaining creature moves towards Sanna but can’t quite reach her. Pike turns invisible and moves towards the wizard. Beltin begins swinging at the wizard but then begins to believe it is only an illusion and calls out to the others. Obregon kills the raven with an arrow and as it disappears, Vain is visibly shaken and the illusion winks out. Gonoan drinks a potion of cure serious. Sanna hits the last rutterkin with an orb of cold and it blinds him. The demon growls and another small demon appears next to it. Pike puts 2 bolts in the rutterkin. Beltin hits them both with acid, killing the dretch outright. Obregon starts shooting the last one with arrows until it drops. We begin looking around the room but don’t see anything specific. Suddenly, the circle around Pike lights up and traps him. We can then hear one set of the double doors opening. Gonoan steps back through the wall and sees 5 Vains, each holding a staff of bone!

We return to the ruins and enter the tower of magic (the kobolds do not molest us). We descend until we pass the trough of burning tar which singes Sanna a little on the way by. We arrive at Kalystys chamber and open the door. We move in to the room and Sanna greets Riaini and tells her that we don’t have her freedom. She immediately begins to cast a spell but not fast enough. Beltin hits her with acid as Obregon calls up the plant growth around her which entangles and pierces her with thorns. Gonoan moves up to her but can’t hit her yet. Pike shoots at her and hits solidly. She cries out betrayal! Sanna throws a lightning bolt made of ice that swerves around Beltin and hits her, hard. She casts a spell on Pike. Beltin moves up and hits her and she falls. We search her body and find bracers of armor +3, amulet of health +4, ring of prot +2, ring of force shield. Beltin guards the door while Pike and Obregon search the room. Sanna walks around with detect magic but still we find nothing else. We decide to head to the room with the teleporters and arrive without incident. Pike is able to reopen the secret door and we step on the disc one by one. We arrive at the room with the 2 black teleportation discs, one of which is broken and crumbling. There is a golden statue of a wizard between them and purple curtains blocking one end. Gonoan peaks behind the curtain and sees a smallish room with a passage to the north. Sanna looks at the statue and believes it is Boccob. Obregon searches the statue but finds nothing. We go down the stairs and to the south are large double doors and to the north are a set of double doors and a single door before the passage swings to the west. Pike determines the doors to the south are locked. He checks all of his key collection but they don’t work so he attempts to pick the lock but fails. He uses his knock and the door clicks several times and pops open slightly. Pike begins to blink and peeks through to see two more sets of double doors just like the ones we just opened. Sanna explains the door was held by an arcane lock while Obregon tracks. Obviously, some large creatures have moved through the same door we came in, both other sets of doors and in to the wall at the end of the hall. Sanna uses the detect secret door wand on the end but it reveals nothing, indicating it may be an illusion. Obregon attempts to pass his hand through it but it feels real to him. Sanna detects magic and the wall is strongly illusion and the other doors are arcane locked. She is then able to pass through the wall. The rest of us manage to follow her and we find a domed ceiling over an octagonal room. It is lit by flames coming from around a large circle in the floor with 3 other circles inside it. There are 3 balconies which are enclosed in a reflective silvery metal. 3 immense deformed humanoid forms move around the perimeter of the large circle and a human male sits in one of the smaller. Who could this be?

We spend some time in the city on the 24th of Patchwall, ordering items and healing up. During the day, Gonoan is struck with some health damage. Beltin manages to heal it but he goes to a healer to figure out why. Sanna convinces him go to the Druids grove, where they cast some spells and tell him he has a supernatural parasite that would require a remove curse. Gonoan elects to talk to the rest of the party before doing anything. On the way back, they notice some of the street kids wandering around. Sanna decides to create a frosty design in the street which some of the kids begin to play on. Gonoan tells Beltin what he learned and Beltin gives him a potion of remove curse. Sanna goes and observes Elaine being raised from the dead. She is weak but healthy. Gonoan spends his time in the Green Dragon Inn and notices Kellick in there once as he was leaving. Beltin visits with his saucy tart a couple of times. On the 25th, Obregon, Pike and Sanna decide to stake out the church of Boccob to see if the demon returns. The evening of Ready’reat 1st, Pike spots a flying humanoid creature with tentacles and spiky bones protruding from its back. Obregon notices it a few seconds later. Pike and Obregon sneak toward Rigby’s tomb, which appears to be where the creature is headed. Obregon casts a spell at it but it fizzles so he backs away and calls for Sanna. She manages to spot it and calls down a flame strike which does not affect it either. Pike tosses the fist of emerikul at it and a phantasmal killer appears but is immediately disbelieved. The creature dive bombs Pike but then chuckles and disappears. They share the adventure with the priests that come out. We ask for Riann and they fetch her. She is dressed simply and they tell her the story. She excuses herself to talk to her people and Pike wanders over to eavesdrop. They are talkin about a forbidden book but that’s all he can make out. When she returns, they need to do some research and the “Demonicon” is too dangerous for us. They remind us of the quest to destroy Kalystys. When Riann is asked about the discrepancy between the description of Kalystys and the creature that just appeared, she claims to only be going by what she was told. The three of them head home. The 2nd of Ready’reat dawns bright and cool. We catch up on what happened at the church and then gather our purchases. Pike and Obregon go to Kellick and describe the creature. He is unsure and refers them to the Demonicon. They then describe Kalystys and ask if he is aware of her. He knows she has been there for a long time and many adventurers have come across her and most have fallen. He also believes she is a half drow/half succubus. He recommends killing her, for her treasure if nothing else. The 3rd of ready’reat will be the last for Kalystys as we head back to the towers…

Beltin heads down the spiral staircase. About 50’ down, there is a room off of the stairs whose door is ajar. He heads back up and gets Pike and Sanna to come down and check it out while he continues to descend. Pike opens the door the rest of the way and there is a golden brazier alight in the corner. This small room is clean with an oversize plush chair in one corner and a shelf with a few ledgers and a small chest opposite. Pike determines one of the keys we took off of the priestess fits the chest so he uses it and opens the chest. He and Sanna feel weakness roll over them but finds an explorers outfit, vestments, nobles outfit, golden necklace with iuz symbol 500gp, gold ring set w/ruby 200gp, 2 potions cure moderate, scroll planar ally 2400gp, and a jar keoghmans ointment 4000gp 5 applications. Meanwhile, Beltin keeps going and reaches the bottom. He sees caverns and passages indicative of the underdark. He begins ascending and spitting acid at joints on the way up. Pike looks at the ledgers and turns to the back where it appears she is talking about torturing someone whose name she doesn’t mention but does talk about someone named Bailik. Beltin appears at the door and asks why they are still there as he has been weakening the stairs on the way up. They tell him about the weakness so Beltin carries Pike up the stairs and then sends Gonoan down to fetch Sanna. After reaching the top, Beltin spits acid on the stairs until it begins to collapse loudly and at the same time there are sounds like a building collapsing off to the north. We begin heading out and have no new encounters on the way. As we exit, Sanna asks the kobolds if they have a healer as Natauru has fallen in battle. Their shaman wizard says he has no ability to raise the dead but if we leave his body, they will see it disposed of properly. Sanna tearfully says good bye and we leave him there. On our way back, Pike and Sanna’s strength returns. We reach Greyhawk in late afternoon as the sun is beginning to set. We head home, sort our treasure and read through the notes and ledgers we found. We learn that Bailik was the master of the golem makers, Shyrath was the priestess, there is someone over them whom they don’t name, Bailik has been swiping plush furniture from the tower of war to outfit his room, Shyrath has been noting weaknesses in the higher ups, including cowardice and negligence. The boss is apparently hiding in the halls of beckoning. She has been recently sent to the underdark. We take it easy for the evening and the next day, we sell our loot. Then we split up: Sanna and Pike go to the church of Boccob to resurrect Elaine, Beltin and Gonoan to the church of St Cuthbert to meet with Eritae. After moving through some lower level priests, Sanna and Pike get to meet with Rhiann. As Sanna begins to pull Elaines body out, Rhiann stops her and says we need to take her to the proper area for that. They move to another room and put her body on a table and then Sanna tells her story. Rhiann is unhappy with the way the Kalystys meeting went down. Pike explains why we didn’t kill her out of hand. Rhiann is disappointed with our actions and thinks we should have killed her anyway. Sanna tries to convince her to accompany us but she claims to be needed too much here. Sanna then asks for a recommendation for a healer. Rhiann says she can look for someone. They leave and head back home. Meanwhile, at the church of St Cuthbert, Beltin and Gonoan go in to see Eritae whose first action is to give us some healing. We share our story and she is unhappy with our choice to not kill Kalystys. We ask about the halls of beckoning but she has never heard of them. She supports our desire to hunt down the hidden boss. She asks if we will be going back in the next day or so but we won’t commit as we need to gear up. She asks what we need and we say we need items to fight fiends/demons. She is going to talk to others to see what other options we may have outside the church. We go out and order some new items. Now we wait.

The demons look a little like orcs with 4 arms and are each wielding 2 large sized longbows. The cleric definitely appears to be a priest of Iuz in full plate with a heavy mace and shield. Sanna throws an electric ball which the demons ignore and does not seem to affect the cleric as much as normal. Obregon hits the cleric with an arrow as Beltin moves and sprays acid, hitting most of them. Pike shoots a couple of bolts at the woman but misses. Two of the demons disappear and the others fire arrows at Beltin but can’t manage to hit him. Gonoan runs to the cleric but his axe bounces off her armor. She steps back and casts a black ray of negative energy at Gonoan who feels weakness flow over him. Sanna casts a frost strike on her. Obregon then drops her with 2 arrows. Pike hollers out that there are more above us. Beltin moves up to flank the demon Gonoan is fighting and looks up, spotting the other 2 demons. Those 2 both shoot 8 arrows at him but only hit twice. The 2 on the ground shoot Gonoan a couple of times and he repays the favor by getting in 3 massive hits on the one between him and Beltin. The priestess somehow manages to hit herself with a wand. Sanna casts a chain of frost between 2 of the demons, causing one of them to disappear. Obregon uses his arrow storm and hits 2 of the 3 remaining. Beltin walks over and knocks the cleric out again. Pike hits one with a bolt. The arrow demons put Obregon down with multiple arrows while Gonoan charges the other one on the ground and smacks him with his axe. Sanna arcs frost between 2 of them again, one of whom looks seriously hurt. Beltin climbs the wall and hits 2 of them with acid. One demon teleports next to Obregon and one next to the cleric. The last hits Sanna with 3 arrows. Gonoan charges the one next to the cleric and hits it once. Sanna throws some frost around herself hitting one demon, the cleric and Gonoan. Obregon crawls around a corner and pulls out a healing potion. Beltin steps up and hits the one on the ledge twice, and it disappears. Pike puts a bolt in one of the remaining 2. One demon moves over by Obregon and the other pulls a potion off of the cleric and pours it down her throat causing her to become invisible. Gonoan kills it and then runs over and throws himself over her invisible body. Sanna tosses an orb at the last demon but misses. Obregon hits the one standing over him 3 times as Beltin jumps down and hits it with acid and Pike tosses the fist of emirkol at it, dampening its magic. The final one drops his bows and hits Obregon twice with his claws, rendering him unconscious and then moves to the other side of him. Gonoan starts swinging at the cleric trying to make sure she is dead. Sanna tosses another fruitless orb as Beltin moves up and hits the demon. Pike moves around and puts a bolt in its throat and it vanishes. Pike pours the healing potion down Obregons throat. Beltin puts on his fast healing aura while Pike loots the priestesses body. We find full plate lt fortification+1, heavy mace+2 unholy, cloak+2 resistance, periapt of wisdom +2, hvy steel shield, vestmetns, 84 gp, silver unholy symbol, key, key, wand cure moderate 27 charges, 2 lg hvy comp longbows +1.

We decide to start checking out the bowl shaped room with the wizard pillars. Obregon can tell that a few things have been through this room; a slow moving giant and some humanoid wizards/clerics. We begin to search the room and suddenly Sanna, Gonoan and Obregon collapse to the ground. Beltin checks Gonoan and determines he appears to be sleeping but doesn’t wake up to a gentle slapping. Pike looks around and then moves out of the hall in to the cavernous passage beyond. Beltin attempts to heal Gonoan of 1 point of damage but this doesn’t’ accomplish anything either. Pike sees this passage opens to a large cavern with stalactites/stalagmites competing for floor space. There are carts full of rock near holes in the floor. Beltin begins dragging the others from the hallway while Pike keeps watch. As Beltin drags Obregon out, he notices he has started to turn blue and isn’t breathing. He attempts to heal him but to no effect. Suddenly, Obregon begins breathing in great big gasps of breath but is still unconscious. Beltin turns on his fast healing aura and Pike forces a neutralize poison potion down Obregons throat. He looks a little better. Beltin then removes the poisoned condition from Gonoan and Sanna and everyone recovers within a few minutes. Pike hears a noise of something large moving in the cavern and immediately hides. Then we move along the ledge, when suddenly an axe appears flying through the air at Gonoan from a previously invisible fomorian. Gonoan charges him, accepting a hit from another axe, and hits him hard. Pike puts 2 bolts in it while Obregon fills it with 3 arrows. It yells Mashface is ready for you, speaks to its ring and turns invisible. Beltin sprays the cavern with acid as Sanna covers the area with electricity. Pike shoots at it twice and appears to hit with both. Obregon manages to sink one arrow into its invisible ass as well. Mashface appears to be running away so Beltin and Gonoan jump off the ledge and begin chasing after him. Obregon and Pike run along the ledge though Sanna jumps off the ledge and follows the others. We continue to chase him until Beltin is able to hit him with acid. He drops and turns visible. We loot the body and find a ring of invisiblity. We believe the passage continues on to a lower level of the tower of war. We end up in a small chamber that houses a spiral staircase going down. This goes down 2 levels to a passage which leads to another spiral staircase going down another level. This opens to large cavern with a crumbling pyramid in the center. There is a broken statue of Nerull along the ground and there is flickering torchlight coming from the opening in its base. We are 20’ up but there is a sloping walkway down. Sanna lights up the detect magic wand and the broken statue glows strongly. So we move off to the side and climb down the slope instead in an attempt to not disturb what we suspect is an animated statue. We climb up the other pyramid and look down inside where we see another spiral staircase which goes deeper in to the earth. It appears they are attempting to support it with wooden beams. Obregon can tell a number of orcs have been moving through here. We decide to explore around the area before dealing with the stairs. The first room contains a black altar split by the large fissure through the pyramid. The next rooms wall is broken down and appears to be filled with garbage and corpses. The bodies are ogre mages wearing robes of Nerull and some sort of fungoid creatures which Obregon believes are violet fungi. Pike and Sanna search the pile and find a potion bottle and adamantine dagger. The next room’s door opens to reveal 2 barrels of arrows which Beltin melts. The next door opens and we see 4 sets of artisans tools, wooden beams, healers kit and a crate of 50 torches. We take the tools and kit while Beltin melts the torches. The last door has crates of rations, 2 barrels of water, a barrel of ale(6gp), a box with 4 bottles of ilimurth wine from highfolk, and a large wheel of fine fyrondian cheese (5gp). We keep the barrel of ale, some rations, the wine and cheese while destroying the rest. Sanna checks for secret doors but finds nothing. Across the way is another door that we manage to knock down. As the dust settles, we see a room that is collapsed and the skeletal hand of an ogre mage is extending from the rubble. We hear something coming from the spiral staircase. There are 4 demonlike creatures and a redheaded woman with full armor coming up. Death stalks us…

We follow the directions and come to the south facing stairs leading to a large room. There is an alcove to the side with a statue of a wizard, head back as if singing. As we pass near, the statue begins to sing. This room is a vaulted chamber lit by torches dominated by a large table with padded chairs. On one wall is a large curtain. There are verbeeg tracks throughout this room but none are present at the moment. Behind the curtain is a crude map of the towers which shows some lower levels and and a couple of areas of interest. Obregon copies the map. Sanna activates the detect secret doors wand to find the portal Rhiani spoke of. Pike manages to open it and Obregon determines that it has not been used in a long time. This is just a 5’ square room. We guess it is the teleporter and squeeze in and close the door to see what happens. We reopen it but are still in the same room so we have Pike search it. He finds another secret door which opens on to a bedroom with a thick rug and a chandelier, canopy bed, small table and chair covered in parchments and a teak wardrobe. A door to the west is the only other obvious means of egress. We search the room and find a secret door to the east. We find 6 fine tabards, 4 noble outfits and a royal outfit, and some silk blankets. These all go in to the PH along with the chandelier. The parchments contain drawings of Greyhawk and plans for assaults in different circumstances. Those go in to Beltin’s haversack. Pike is unable to determine how to open the secret door so we will need to wait for his knock ring to recharge. Pike checks the regular door and it opens to a landing and short staircase leading to a large room. This room contains multiple forges with verbeeg smiths laboring and a red skinned giant with 2 small horns commanding them. There are 3 work tables with partially completed iron golems upon them. We move in to the room and Beltin spits acid, Obregon finishes off 4 of the verbeeg with an arrow storm, and Sanna throws lightning and finishes number 5. Gonoan steps in and hits the efreet, killing it. A human in full plate wielding a composite long bow comes down the hallway into the room and shoots Gonoan. Pike begins to move stealthily towards the new player. Beltin approaches him but misses. Obregon finishes the last verbeeg and then puts an arrow in to the fighter. Sanna hits him with an orb of electricity and he falls though his body continues to jerk and spark. We search the room and find 6 MW morningstars, +1full plate, +1 heavy steel shield, MW longsword, +1 frost composite longbow +2 str, and a minor ring of cold resistance. The remaining door opens on to a hall with blue pillars that are each shaped like different wizards running along it. The floor resembles a shallow bowl which is lower in the center than along the walls. There is an opening in the far wall. We decide to throw the golem pieces in to the forges and rest in the bed room. When we wake up, Pike uses his knock ring on the secret door and it opens to reveal a narrow passageway that turns almost immediately to a wider area with a black stone disc set in to the floor and another door. Pike opens the door and sees a winding set of stairs going down which he immediately descends. After about 40’, he comes back up as they just keep going. Sanna believes the disc is the teleporter and likely sends you somewhere else in the dungeon and possibly back here as well. Pike drinks a potion of invisibility and steps on to the teleporter. After a moment, he vanishes though the rest of us can’t tell right away. The room he arrives in has 2 black discs, one of which is highly polished while the other is crumbling. In an alcove between them is a statue of a handsome wizard in purple garments decorated with gold runes. A heavy curtain covers one end of the room so he sneaks over to it and looks behind it. There is more of the room which is completely empty and a passage off to one side the turns after a few feet. He peeks around that corner and sees a long set of stairs going down. He returns and checks out the statue but finds nothing of interest. He then steps on to the black disc and tells the rest of the party what he found. Where to now?

We search the alcove and find nothing of interest. Pike checks the east door and it opens easily to reveal stairs that go down. The west door opens onto an identical set of stairs. We decide to go back to a couple of areas that we skipped earlier. As we begin to leave, Sanna goes down the stairs and looks around the corner to find there are yet more stairs. The door we go back to opens on to a storeroom full of dust covered crates and boxes. There is another door on the opposite wall, a collapsed passage to the east and a hallway back the way we came on the same wall we just entered through. We check the crates and find they contain old, dried up food. Obregon can tell that there has been an orc through here within the last week. Suddenly we hear a loud alarm like noise and it appears to be coming from a rock near the other door. Sanna knows it’s an alarm spell so Gonoan smashes the rock which stops the piercing noise. We open the other door and find a large cavern. There is a 10’ ledge across the back and a pool of dark green sludge to one side in this high ceilinged room. It doesn’t appear that the orc ever left this room and there are no obvious exits. Beltin spider climbs up the wall and over to the ledge. Sanna steps in to the doorway and uses detect magic which finds an aura near Beltin. She can tell it is moving up the wall above him and he moves around trying to see it. Beltin sprays the area with acid and then jumps off the ledge. Obregon shoots an alchemist arrow in to the same area. Gonoan moves in to the room and readies himself for an attack. Gonoan and Sanna all of a sudden begin reeling as if they have been stunned. Pike moves in, closes the door and hides. Obregon casts entangle on the ceiling. Beltin unstuns Sanna and then he hears a voice in his head “Oh, you really need to recover all of our abilities so you should take a nice bath in the green pool over there”. Beltin disparages its suggestion. Pike picks out its shape and shoots a couple of bolts at it but doesn’t seem to connect. Obregon begins shooting arrows, seeming to hit 3 times. Sanna throws a lightning ball, covering the ceiling. It reappears, dead and entangled, and looks to be a mind flayer. After the entangle ends and it falls to the ground, we put the body in the PH. We search the room and find 2 studded leather armor, and a wand of greater invisibility w/26 charges on the creature. We head back to the t junction past the pillar room. To the east is a door a short ways down and to the west is another t junction a few feet down. There is an alcove here with a statue of boccob. Pike hears something behind the door. Sanna looks at the statue and notices it is hollow and has Zjarcon written on its palm. Gonoan kicks in the door and we see a large cave stretching in front of us. Stalagmites and stalactites dot this room as iridescent colors stream along the walls and fungus and mushrooms cover the floor. There is a flying creature attempting to hide behind a stalactite. Beltin calls out “Kalystys, come down here”. She claims to not be Kalystys but a priestess forced to wear her form whose name is Rhiani. She has been here for 184 years and suffers from a planar binding. She tells us her tale: After Zagig abandoned his apprentices, one of them , Telvaeran Pash wanted to use eldritch magic. He is using her form to attempt to fool adventurers. He had fallen under the influence of Fraz-Urb’luu, a demon prince. Kalystys used her magic to swap forms and killed the wizard. She is a dark elf princess and trapped here. She recognizes the name of Rian but can’t be sure of where. She asks us to set her free with Mordekainens injunction or anti-magic field. She offers us her cloak of resistance2 in exchange for getting the spell she needs. Pike walks up to her and gets the cloak, noticing runes tattooed on her body. We ask if she has heard of Robilar or Bilaro? She remembers Robillar from decades ago when he came with Mordekainen and more recently, Billarro was near here as there was an alarm because of him. She believes he would be in the tower of zagig not here but points us in the direction of the warroom where there is a map for going between the towers. There is also a teleporter somewhere. She warns us that there are some fierbolg, and efreeti and a high level commander set up in the Golem Forge. We follow her directions towards the warroom and …..

Nat heals up Gonoan with the healing belt. We choose the far passage and while checking this well locked door, we hear several verbeeg on the other side. Pike manages to pick this complicated lock after a few tries though we can hear that they know we are coming. Gonoan heaves the door open though there was a cot shoved in front of it. There are 3 verbeeg in this room and another door with a cot in front of it. Sanna sends lightning arcing between each of them and they begin to smoke. Gonoan moves in and mows one down while Pike shoots at another, which somehow knocks his bolt out of the air. Beltin moves in and melts them both with acid. We loot the bodies and take glaives+1, breastplates+1, and composite longbows from each. Pike spots a peep hole in the wall when suddenly Beltin is stunned, and hit by a dark beam of energy. Pike rushes to the hole and shoots a crossbow bolt through it but there is no evidence that it hit anything. Beltin heals himself of his conditions. Obregon attempts to discover where the entrance to this hidden chamber is. Sanna uses the detect secret doors wand and finds the entrance right next to the door we came in. Gonoan manages to find the door as well. Then Pike is stunned, exhausted and hit with fire. Beltin steps up and blocks the peep hole with his shield. The shield is attacked by fire but it fails to do any damage. Pike becomes unstunned and Beltin heals his exhaustion. The creature attacks the shield with fire again to no effect. Pike gets the door unlatched and Beltin pushes it open. In this room is a bloated sphere with a group of tentacles and a large central eye. There is an archway out of this room and the skeletal remains of a verbeeg as the foul stench of decay flows towards us. Sanna fires 2 scorching rays at it but misses. Gonoan charges it with his eyes closed and scores a good hit. The creature moves away and hits Gonoan with paralysis and exhaustion, but only the exhaustion sticks. Pike throws his orb at it, hits it but it resists the effects. Beltin heals Gonoan’s exhaustion while Obregon puts 2 arrows in it. Sanna moves up and casts a blast of flame on it. Gonoan hits it once, bringing it near death. It shoots a ray of paralysis at Sanna but she shrugs it off. And then it hits her with a scorching ray but her scarab absorbs most of the damage. Pike kills it with a well placed bolt. We put its carcass in the PH and begin to look around this beholder-kins lair and find a metal ring set in the floor. Sanna tries to pull this stone trap door open but fails miserably. Gonoan struggles as well but Beltin manages to get it open. As we begin to look inside, Gonoan and Obregon hear something coming and move to intercept. This skeletal creature with tattered wizard robes and glowing red eyes moves in to view to take 2 arrows from Obregon. The creature sends out a cone of cold; catching most of the party. Elaine and Natauru are killed outright, Obregon dodges out of the way and Gonoan and Sanna get whomped. Beltin runs out of the room and spits acid at the skeleton. Obregon kills it with 2 more arrows. The skeleton has bracers of armor+4, cloak of resistance 1, potion of gaseous form, scroll of summon monster IV 8th lvl, wand of magic missiles 9th lvl, ring of prot1. Our dead companions go in to the PH. We go back and find that this small hollow contains some treasure: 1600cp, 980sp, 640gp, 3pp, 5 moonstones, bejeweled short sword scabbard, scroll expeditious retreat, scroll delay poison, scroll vampiric touch, wand cure light 32 charges, wand scorching ray 12 charges. We head to the other door blocked by a cot, move the cot and open the door, revealing a set of stairs going down. At the bottom is a cavernous room being used for storage which contains some stacked barrels. Some of the barrels contain the mark of Iuz and the others have local merchant marks. They contain water and foodstuffs. We destroy them all to deny them to the enemy. To the right is a passageway with a door a few feet down which then turns a corner and goes down quite a ways to a t junction. We open the door on to a long, wide hallway with green pillars along it. There a doors to the right and left at the far end and an alcove at the end. Obregon checks for tracks and finds that verbeeg have been coming in here regularly. In the alcove is mural of a wizard holding aloft a glowing staff and a spell book with the heavens opening above him. Sanna believes this is where worshipers of Zagig left offerings to him but none have done so in ages. Lets look around…

It appears the kobolds have kept the first four levels (Zagig’s gauntlet, Ogre crypts, apprentices walk, and another that seems to be class and study rooms) cleared so we keep moving down. The next level is the vaults of creation, where golems and other constructs were made. Sanna begins scanning for magic and discovers a secret door that leads to a wide staircase going down. These steep stairs lead in to large chamber with a flickering orange light and a pungent acrid smell coming from within. There are 3 balconies with pillars supporting them, and 4 doors. At the rear of the northern balcony is a thin line of fire beyond which is a cavernous area. The ground underneath that one has been dug out and is filled with water which has what appears to be an oil slick on it. As we move closer, the stench is very acidic as if someone had been urinating or disposing of garbage here. Obregon moves up and dips the tip of his arrow in the pool which causes a wave and the arrow is damaged and smoking. Pike shoots 2 bolts in to it, causing it to reshape in to a couple of spheres. Obregon hits one with 6 force arrows and it gets smaller and smaller until it is only a quarter of its original size. Beltin climbs on to a balcony and sprays the creatures with acid. Sanna hits the larger one with a couple of ice blasts. Pike hits the smaller one with 2 bolts but nothing seems to happen. Obregon finishes them both off with his force arrows. Pike begins checking around the perimeter of the water as Beltin notices a couple of verbeeg beyond the flames. Pike checks out the doors and they are locked and all look the same. We hear nothing from behind the doors as Beltin calls out about the verbeeg. The creatures run up, jump through the flames (catching on fire in the process) and aim bows at Beltin. Obregon takes his 6 shots, almost killing one. Beltin hits them with acid, killing the first one. Pike hits the other one with a bolt. Gonoan climbs on to the balcony with it and kills it when it attempts to extinguish itself. He can see there are 6 more coming. 2 of them shoot Gonoan with arrows. One of the others calls out in giant “there is a party down below, somehow they bypassed the pudding. Let them come to us”. Sanna attempts to climb up to the balcony but can’t seem to get a purchase. Obregon climbs up the nearest balcony and jumps across to join Gonoan. Beltin spider climbs across the ceiling and jumps through the flames. Pike attempts to open the lock of the door in front of him but fails. Gonoan moves through the fire and hits the closest verbeeg. 2 of the verbeeg move up and hit Gonoan, one pretty badly causing him to go into a rage. The other 4 shoot at Beltin but his shield deflects the arrows out of the air. Obregon kills one of the creatures attacking Gonoan, while Beltin and Gonoan kill the other. The remaining four send one off to sound the alarm and the others move up and shoot at Beltin again, though he still blocks their arrows. They look pissed. Pike gives Sanna his grappling hook and rope and then uses his ring to magically open the door. It swings open to reveal a brick wall, and he screams in frustration. Sanna tosses the grappling hook and manages to catch it on something. Obregon kills one of the remaining three and injures another. Beltin hits both of the others with acid while Pike climbs up to the balcony and takes a shot but misses. Sanna climbs up as Obregon finishes off another. Beltin moves up the ledge and hits the last one. Pike moves through the flames and puts a bolt in it, and it collapses. We loot the bodies and get glaives+1, composite longbows, and breastplates+1 from each of the 8 which we put in the PH. There are 2 doors off the lower area and an extensive cavern above the ledge. Pike checks the furthest door and opens it to reveal a large room with a number of barrels piled haphazardly as well as a door, a cavernous area and a passage that appears to lead to the other door from the last room. He taps on one of the barrels and it sounds empty. Sanna comes in and checks one, finding it full of tar. We move in and go through the next door, finding an empty alcove with another door. Nat says he senses evil ahead and that door opens to a rectangular chamber with 3 doors, decorated with murals featuring lumbering large humanoids pillaging a village. There is blood splattered on the walls and paint scraped away in places. There is rubble that could have been a statue and a rotting corpse. Pike moves near the body and can see it was a humanoid but not human. He checks the far door and it opens on to a passage with a door at the end. He then checks the other door in this room which reveals another passageway that turns to the right down a ways. Which way do we go?

Its early afternoon on the 16th and Beltin, Obregon and Sanna begin reading their books. Nat heads off on his own errands, Gonoan goes drinking and Pike heads to the Dark Moon monastery to see what he owes. The monastery is large and extremely well manicured with the door open and inviting. Pike meets with the head monk, Iquoyan. He appears wise and unflappable. Pike shares his reason for stopping by and is led further inside. He is told he will be facing up to 3 of their best warriors to which Pike objects but ultimately accepts. The rules are non-lethal damage only; weapons must be blunted and magic items removed until the fight begins. The arena is quite large with covered pits scattered around and a large open pit in the center with water in the bottom and a small platform in the center at ground level. There are monks at each of the 3 single doors out and Pike comes in through 2 large double doors. Without preamble, the monks begin to move, one immediately moving adjacent. Pike puts on his blink ring and manages to avoid an attack. The other 2 move up as well. The first monk takes a couple of swings but cannot catch Pike, who now tumbles away and shoots Purple. Red moves up and misses, Purple does the same but still can’t’ catch Pike. Pike rolls away again, hitting Purple again. Purple hits him but the other 2 miss. Pike attempts to cross the beams to the center platform but falls. He still hits purple again. He takes another hit when they approach. He manages to climb the middle platform and hits purple again. Red climbs on to a beam but misses as does purple. This continues for a number of rounds until Pike manages to take down 2 of the 3 at which time Iquoyan calls it a victory. He offers him a healing tea and tells him a story about Zuwokan, their god. Elders of the order have long suspected that Zuoken is imprisoned in the dungeons below Castle Greyhawk, for Zagig is known to have captured several demigods—including Iuz the Old—about the time Zuoken vanished from Oerth. To this end, about fifteen years ago the monks hired the disgraced Lord Robilar to escort an elite group of devoted masters into the castle in hopes of discovering their patron’s whereabouts. Some in the order questioned the wisdom of employing a known criminal, but all ultimately agreed that Robilar’s expertise would serve them well in the dungeons below Zagig’s ruined estate. The order thereafter heard nothing from the expedition, and after a month divinations revealed that the monks had all been killed. But Robilar remained alive. When the fighter was seen in the city thereafter, he claimed no knowledge of the monks and warned the monastery to leave him alone or face dire consequences. The monks believe that Robilar murdered their brothers and sisters and simply pocketed his exorbitant fee, a suspicion all but confirmed by the fighter’s subsequent betrayal of the Circle of Eight on the Day of Great Signing. The elder monks believe that Robilar has returned to Greyhawk for Riggby’s funeral in the guise of Ricard Damaris’s friend Captain Gallancz, and they know outright of Robilar’s former ownership of the Green Dragon Inn. He requests our parties assistance with rescuing their god from the ruins. He offers a fist sized ruby to Pike who gladly accepts it. He decides not to show it to us in a fit of pique. Sanna and Elaine go shopping for new outfits for the funeral the next day. We hang out at the Green dragon Inn and ask after Galanz who hasn’t been around in a while. Pleasant conversation ensues. The next day, we receive some special information on when and where to show up if we are interested in attending the funeral. We all attend at the temple of Boccob and see Riann again standing near the casket. They speak about Rigby and his life. They bring out a large rod, a group of different magic users and begin a ritual to imbue it as an artifact with Rigby’s life energy. The crowd begins to disperse and Sanna waves at Riann who comes over. She is lost about what to do next and Sanna invites her to join with us. She is not ready but will contact us when she wants to talk. She comes a few days later and we speak. She compliments our house and Sanna tries to impress her. Pike points out the statue of Boccob that we have. She tells us that the temples intelligence believes a blasphemous half demon/dark elf is hiding in the ruins. Her name is Kalystys and has staged attacks in the past. No one remembers what happened to earn her enmity. The attacks seem to be trying to find a weakness in the defenses of the church of boccob but she flees when discovered. We call Natauru out and ask if he knows anything about the demon. He does not know of her specifically but believes we have the tools necessary to defeat a demon. Riann asks us to bring her proof of the demons demise and heads back to the church. We finish our reading, collect our items on order and head back to the ruins. We approach the tower of magic and Nat calls out a couple of the kobolds on guard to assure them that we are going to free their people. They respect him and we are unmolested. We can see Grandfather magic off a ways but he doesn’t seem to notice us. Sanna attempts to put the key in the ruby skull which begins to glow and vibrate. Suddenly, it opens and a butterfly comes out. Sanna tries to grab it and misses. It begins to fly towards the acolytes and the purple smoke ceases. The kobolds open the main door and some other kobolds exit, seeming relieved to be out. The acolytes attempt to get Grandfather Magic to come our direction but he resists and then exclaims that the barrier is down and that “they succeeded”. “The butterfly, the butterfly, now it will lead me to the one true portal”. He begins to follow it, ignoring us. The door is open…

Pike moves in to a narrowing area that curves around and exits in to a room littered with bones scattered amongst a number of boulders. He is 2/3 up the wall in a hole and there is a ledge above him. He can hear a humanoid sized creature is moving around up there. He secures a grappling hook at his feet and then climbs up to the ledge. He peeks over the edge and sees 2 odd looking humanoid creatures that resemble winged kobolds. There are 2 small boxes on either side of the ledge and a large boom like apparatus with manacles attached. He drinks a reduce potion and attempts to sneak past them successfully. As he moves in to the next cavernous area, it y’s and one ends at a door so he approaches it. He can hear more small humanoids on the other side and as he moves away, notices the creatures on the ledge have been startled and it appears something else has come through and is moving through the bones. He keeps moving and the surroundings become more man made. As he moves, he notices there is a door ahead. As he approaches he can see the passage opens on to a large room with 5 verbeegs, armed and dangerous. He immediately hides and moves to the door, through which he hears more verbeegs on the other side. He decides to attempt to sneak past the verbeeg he can see. He continues on and a short ways down, there is an odd looking door. He puts up a light to check it out and he hears the verbeeg begin to move his way. He immediately moves to the odd door and as he opens it, it almost feels diaphanous. He moves through and closes it behind him. This chamber is filled with oddities and misplaced items, including Kellicks lost cloak clasp. He has found the Lost Room! He hides the Demon cube and searches through the other items. He finds an unusual looking short sword (of throwing+1), a scroll(locate object), a vial(universal solvent), assorted keys, assorted jewelry, random coinage. After packing all of the stuff in his haversack, he notices the curtain door keeps moving. He moves the curtain aside and there is only wall behind. He follows the curtain around the room but seems unable to locate the exit. Meanwhile, Beltin spits acid at the demon and moves around to its other side. Obregon steps back and puts 4 force arrows in it. Sanna moves away but is nauseated as is Gonoan who stands fast. The demon steps aside and attempts to use an ability but we are not affected. Beltin hits it twice as Obregon puts 2 more arrows in it, and it vanishes. We immediately leave and shut the door behind us. Pike continues to look for an exit, and after an hour or so, pulls the curtain and finds himself back near the verbeeg. He sneaks past them and makes his way past the Urd, down the wall and back through the hole. The carrion crawlers are amongst the bones. He retraces his steps, eventually rejoining the monk. They hear a cough from behind and Pike turns, shooting twice but not hitting anything. He orders the invisible creature to show itself or the next one goes in its eye. Nothing happens so Pike tries to convince the monk to attack it for him but fails to convince him. The monk leads him back to where they met up and Pike moves up to the exit. He makes it back to Greyhawk without incident and proceeds straight to Kellicks tower. He returns the clasp and accuses Kellick of having him followed. Kellick denies it and casts a spell but nothing appears. It is in the room but he doesn’t wish to reveal it to Pike. Kellick advises him to stop worrying about every little thing and asks him which reward he chooses. Pike ultimately chooses the Fist of Emirikol and its ability to cause harm to an enemy. He gets Kellick to identify the vial for him and it is universal solvent. Pike thanks him and leaves. At the house, Natauru finally reappears the following dawn and seems to be exhausted. Nat wants a nap and a snack. Pike arrives shortly thereafter and immediately seeks out Nat who promptly shuts the door in his face. Elaine grabs Pike and pulls him away and they go out for breakfast. He puts the sword, the scroll, half the coin(250 gp), the jewelry (500 gp) and the books on the table and leaves with her. Beltin looks through the books but they don’t seem to be interesting. Elaine attempts to find out what Pike was up to and he is very vague. Later that morning, Beltin, Obregon and Sanna go shopping, ordering a number of new magic items. Eventually, Nat gets up and is puttering around the kitchen, glaring at Pike when he comes through. Sanna checks the items on the table for magic. Pike starts some shit with Natauru, and yelling commences. Pike accuses him of spying for Kellick though Nat says he was there in case he got in over his head or was betraying the party. Pike starts calling him names while Nat insists Pike is untrustworthy. Should we book them on Jerry Springer?

Pike arrives at the ruins and heads in to the center tower. He encounters no one and makes it to the trap door. He leaves a trail of stones leading towards it and manages to get it open using a lever. He moves down the stairs, portcullises closing behind him as he continues. He finds his way to the basilisk’s former area, passing by the large mirror we moved. He heads towards where all of the people turned to stone were but is unable to get himself lost. Next, he tries the area with the cave room whose gravity is reversed. After passing through, he comes to the fountain with the magic water. Wandering around the dungeon at random, he eventually comes across one of the monks. The monk greets him and he tells them he needs to find a new area. They know of a place but want him to give them some time at their monastery in Greyhawk in exchange. They tell him of a place where trolls seem to vanish and they are not sure how to get through. The monk agrees to give him an hour of help and leads him back to the magical fountain. They have watched trolls go in but not come back out. It is very deep and clear so Pike jumps in and sinks to the bottom. He searches around but can’t find any other exits. He looks up and notices he can’t see the monk any longer so he slowly floats up and peeks over the lip. The fountain is identical but the surroundings are slightly off. Meanwhile, the rest of the party heads down the hallway. Obregon feels that there must be some sort of magical maintenance active here preventing things like footprints from showing. Further down the hall, there is an open door with blue light radiating out. There are 7 wizards clustered around it, watching intently. We hear them talking about trying to hold something, that they think they have it but we can see they are straining. We stop at the double doors and it is labeled as some sort of library, Eldritch Magic. We think we are looking for the special collections room in order to learn the secret entrance to the room with Zagigs key. Gonoan opens the doors and we see huge bookshelves dominating this room with 1000s of volumes. We begin to look around when Sanna notices the lights blinking off, one section at a time heading around the room in alphabetical order. As the light goes out around us, our magic ceases to work and a grumbling voice asks what our business is. We tell it we are looking for a book and it asks what book. We say that we are looking for the special collections and he tells us to look elsewhere. We leave and our magic begins working again. As we head down the hall, we see other rooms with signs such as the pentagonal path, cities of red night, etc. Eventually we come to a room labeled special collections and Sanna opens the door. This looks the same as the other libraries though the books seem to be much older. We look for books about the founding of the mages guild while avoiding the areas where the lights go out. We find a couple of volumes that may be what we are looking for so we grab them and step in to the hall. These do not tell us what we want to know and we realize we should probably be looking for details about the architecture. We return the first 2 and look through the A’s. We find the Yagerne accord of 393, which details information about the construction of the mages guild. There is a passage which talks about the hidden room at the top of the ziggurat. It says to find the indigo pillar in the chamber of seven secrets, and speak his name instead of the answer to gain entrance. We head down the hall until we find the chamber of seven secrets. This room has seven stone pillars, each in different colors with a smiling wizards face projected above, each with slightly different expressions. We go to the indigo pillar and nothing happens. Sanna touches the pillar and it asks what are the other 4 worlds besides Oerth? We respond Zagig, the face says welcome and the mouth stretches to become an opening with a ladder going up. Back in the ruins, Pike looks out of the fountain and sees bones on the ground and 4 passageways leading away from here. In front of him, the hall ends at a door, behind it opens to a room, one of the others opens to an odd shaped room and the other widens and y’s. He looks in to the room behind him and there are signs of habitation, some old and some recent but nothing seems to be here currently. He checks the door in front and it opens to what appears to be an art gallery. There are multiple alcoves in here with different art in each. He is tempted but can tell that these are all trapped so he continues to look around and comes across a 3 dimensional image of his birthplace. He moves on and sees more art but finds no other exits so he begins searching. The rest of us climb the ladder and enter a strange room with some sort of magical light and notice the shadows flicker as if from a flame but no flame is evident. Along each wall of this study are 2 windows but there are no windows visible from outside. There is a large bookcase down the center of this room with hundreds of books and scrolls stuffed in it haphazardly. There is comfortable chair to one side and a large statue of Boccob almost blocks passage around the other side. We begin to search the room. The books seem to be lore collected by Zagig when he was mortal. One corner table is covered with alchemical materials and on a desk is a large bronze monkey about the size of a Halfling child. The chair swivels and a bald, distinguished looking man smirks at us, welcomes us to Zagigs chambers and asks what we are doing in this sacred ground, and introduces himself as Mordekainen. We tell him we are looking for Zagig’s key and he says he has it and is impressed that we made it this far. He wants to talk before handing it over. He pulls a foot long obsidian key from a drawer and begins to talk, almost more to the key than to us. “Twenty-seven years ago, Riggby, lord Robilar, and I released Iuz from a magical prison in the dungeons below Castle Greyhawk. We had thought to slay the imprisoned god once and for all so that he could never harm the Flanaess again, but we failed. The Old One walks Oerth once again, and no one is safe. The years since then have not treated us well. Even now, Riggby’s corpse lies at the temple of Boccob. And Robilar is… changed. A few years ago, at the close of the Greyhawk Wars, my old friend Rary betrayed me and the other wizards in the Circle of Eight. When the smoke cleared, Otiluke and Tenser lay dead, and my old apprentice Bigby clung to life by only the barest of thread. Rary’s betrayal was unexpected, though not entirely out of character. He always fancied himself a master chess player, so in retrospect, it was not surprising that he might seek to upset the board. The Circle had been struck before-indeed, it’s members had even been killed before. To prevent catastrophe, each of my wizards prepared special samples— bits of hair or flesh—from which a new version of himself could be created should disaster strike. But Tenser and Otiluke never had a chance, because their strongholds had been raided and sacked by none other than Lord Robilar, my oldest friend and companion. Robilar threw in with Rary for reasons I have never been able to comprehend, and his betrayal galled me and my associates since the moment it occurred. Rary’s defection made a certain kind of sense, but Robilar’s did not. Ironically, the journals in this very room unlocked the mystery. Centuries ago, at the height of Zagig’s adventuring career, he and his companions discovered a powerful artifact called the Orb of Opposition that acted as a key to an alternate world -Uerth, a place similar to Oerth but several shades darker. Strange doppelgangers of Zagig and his friends existed on this world, where they lived a life of villainy. Zagig and company swapped places with their doubles by touching the orb, and only after a series of great adventures did they manage to return to Oerth, imprison their enemies, and lay the orb to rest in the dungeons of Castle Greyhawk. Since Rary’s betrayal, I have become convinced that Robilar, in his exploration of the castle, somehow touched the orb and swapped places with his evil double - a being we encountered once before who calls himself Bilarro. My divinations reveal that Robilar— or rather Bilarro—has once again entered the dungeons of Castle Greyhawk and lurks there even as we speak. I once made a promise to Zagig that I would never again enter Castle Greyhawk, and I intend to honor my oath. You, however, are headed there now. You need this key get in, and I will give it to you freely on one condition. Find the Orb of Opposition. Touch it to Bilarro’s skin and return my friend to Oerth. Agree to this quest, and the key is yours, along with my best wishes. What do you say?” We agree and he hands over the key and with a swirl of his cloak, he vanishes. We search the room and discover Boccobs blessed book, manual of bodily health +2, manual of quickness and action +1, tome of clear thoughts +1 and a scroll of wish. We put them all in the haversack, besides the blessed book. Pike searches until he finds a secret door that opens to stairs which leads to a dusty room with a long corridor leading off of it. There is a desk here that he searches but finds it to be empty. He begins searching and notices footprints on the stairs that weren’t’ there before so he stops and hears footsteps on the stairs. The footprints are identical to those he saw in the forest. So he heads down the corridor, drinks his invisibility potion and sneaks back. He finds the monk moving down the stairs without actually touching them, calls out to Pike and tells him that he is being followed. Pike puts caltrops at the bottom of the stairs and gives the monk a sun rod. The monk asks what is down the corridor but pike says he needs to deal with the follower. Pike can still hear the follower on the stairs but they decide to move down the corridor anyway. It stretches a long way and ends at what appears to be a natural chimney. Pike climbs up through the rocks blocking the chimney and comes out onto a ledge overlooking a large cave. Moving down, and through the room he finds a small chamber with a rock column in the center. There are ropes hanging down and bones lying on the ground when suddenly he realizes that the ropes are tentacles and quickly moves through the room managing to not attract the attention of the 2 carrion crawlers lurking here. He hears something behind him so he stops at the exit and throws his tanglefoot . He can see that something is trying to pull out of the goop. The carrion crawlers appear to have heard it and are moving that way but don’t appear to find anything there. Pike then heads out again. The rest of us move back through the ladder, out of the chamber and back down the corridor. Where the wizards were, the corridor is now empty though the door is still ajar and the blue light is still pulsing. This room is a summoning chamber and we glance in on our way past, seeing 4 long pews and a summoning circle. A red robed female is gesturing madly in front of the flickering light coming from a demonic creature. All of a sudden, the bottom half of the woman hits the door and the creature breaks free. We take off at a run, and it teleports in front of us. Crap…

There is a short hallway which opens onto a medium sized room with a statue and items scattered around the floor. The statue is partially blocking the entrance and appears to be a human wizard turned to stone. The rest of the room is supernaturally dark and even Gonoan can’t see. He looks hard and there appears to be items of value among the detritus scattered about the floor. We move in to the room and begin searching, and notice another door. We find 1500 gp, 3300sp, 3 potionsM(vitality,oil of fiery burning, fumbling), ring of blinking with dwarvish scriptM, and plate mail +3 of elven makeM. Pike checks the other door and finds it is stuck so Gonoan and Beltin pry it open. We see another hallway with a Halfling thief turned to stone partway along. He appeared to be bending over to pick up some copper pieces when he was turned. There is a door at the end of the hall which opens to reveal another room with a large ogreish creature set to receive a charge turned to stone. There is another door beyond it which is stuck. Gonoan and Beltin manage to force it open and find a large room with multiple exits. A hallway and 2 doors lead off this room. The hallway leads to an empty room with stairs leading down. We start with the southern door and it opens to reveal 2 piles of bones in this otherwise empty room. There are 2 doors off this room as well. While we search the bones, Gonoan goes partway down the stairs in the other room and see a large table with chairs. There is a recent meal on the table being eaten by rats, which scatter when he peaks in. There is a doorway out as well. The bones hold nothing of value so we move back a couple of rooms and check another door. It is untrapped but a lot of moisture is present. Gonoan and Beltin open it and behind it lies a cavernous room with stalactites and stalagmites jutting from floor and ceiling with a door on the opposite wall. We notice bones on the ceiling, some of which are impaled on stalactites. Gonoan realizes the orientation of the features in this room is wrong. Obregon and Pike check the other door and behind it is a hallway that has been barricaded with a door just before it. We decide to start with the cave room and as soon as Gonoan steps in, he falls up to the ceiling taking some cuts and scrapes. Obviously gravity is reversed in this room. Beltin steps in and floats to the ceiling courtesy of his feather fall ring. Beltin spider climbs down to the other door and tries to open it but it is stuck. Gonoan manages to climb down using only his brawn and together they get the door open. There is a small chest towards the back of this room. We get to the other door in this room and force it open to reveal an empty room with another door. We get everyone across to it and find a hallway behind it. This long hall opens on to a 4 way intersection with a fountain in the middle. This operational fountain has crystal clear water. 2 other halls lead off while one direction descends via a staircase. Sanna checks the fountain for magic and scans the chest and other gear at the same time. Pike opens the chest and there is a severed orcs head with a large green gem in its mouth. Pike yanks it free and shoves a dagger in its place. The fountain is deep and clear, with necromantic and conjuration auras that Sanna believes could be either harmful or beneficial. Nat wants to pray and try to figure out what the fountain is. We decide to rest for the evening and the next morning Nat senses that this area is supposed to separate us. We decide to head down to the next level. The stairs lead down to a medium sized empty room with stairs going up and another door which opens easily. Beyond it is a medium sized room with some melted troll remains and two more doors. We pick through the remains and find nothing of real value. We inspect the southern door and Pike finds a trap on it. He manages to disable it and opens the door, revealing a short hall to another door. The next door hides irregularly shaped 2 rooms, empty but for some bones. There is a hallway leading off that goes to a 4 way intersection. One way is a long hall, another is a door and the 3rd goes to the room with the oversized table. We check the room first and Obregon can tell that some armored trolls have been through here recently. The tracks lead back the way we came and the only other exit is the stairs back up. We move back and go down the other hall, and take the first door to an empty room. So we head to the door at the other end and we hear what sounds like a number of armored trolls on the other side. The door appears to be easily knocked down, so Beltin steps up and kicks it in. Right in front of the door is a deep chasm before this fairly large room with a table at the far end and a door. There are 10 armored trolls and one human in purple robes with silver stars in this room. Sanna drops a lightning ball on the room as Beltin spits acid; shock and burn! The wizard attempts to cast a spell on Beltin and then flees the room through the other exit. Gonoan jumps across the edge of the chasm, avoiding a hit from the first troll and chopping off its left arm in exchange. With a roar, the troll hits him back with a swipe of its claws. Most of the others move forward, one of whom attempts to hit Beltin but can’t get through his armor. The ones in the rear shoot arrows at Beltin but all miss. Pike hops over behind Gonoan and lines up his shot. Obregon fires off 6 shots, hitting twice. Damn trolls!

We get through the other portcullis with the blink ring and make our way to Greyhawk unmolested. We arrive around midafternoon and head home. We split up the loot and Gonoan and Beltin move out to sell it. Sanna goes to the Mage’s Guild with Elaine and Natauru and has them look at the sword. They recommend taking it directly to Bigby for the best answers but he is not in at the moment. The dwarves keep it and study it for a few hours. In the meantime, she does some reading in their library, practices skills with other warmages and chats with an air elemental. Pike and Obregon head to the Thieves Guild to meet with Tiira. She arrives after a while and greets Obregon warmly. They relate what we found in the tower and ask what the city is saying about the impending attack. There doesn’t seem to be any immediate signs of it happening. She appreciates the information and tells them she has things to handle. Kellick has a task for Pike if he is willing. She then requests that he stay away from the church of boccob and the funeral of rigby as he is disruptive. So they split up, Obregon heads home and Pike goes towards Kellicks tower. After disposing of our treasure, Beltin and Gonoan proceed to the church of St. Cuthbert. There are a lot fewer people around now. Eritae sees us and greets us warmly, providing food and drink. We share our adventures and she questions us to her satisfaction. She shares that they have not discovered any new cultist cells and that church of boccob is being very secretive about the funeral plans. She thanks us and we go home. Pike arrives at Kellick’s tower and is escorted in to the sitting room by Arodotus. He looks around and see 3 domes under glass. One has a sack with something in it, another has a globe with mystical symbols and the third is a spiky evil looking cube. Kellick arrives after a short while and comments on the newer items Pike has acquired. Kellick wants a favor and asks him to dispose of something that is very dangerous. He wants Pike to lose it without getting lost himself. It is a cursed item that needs to be left where it will be hopelessly lost. It is called the demon box that once opened will allow unlimited demons to enter the world. There is a room in the ruins called the lost room where everything lost in the dungeon eventually ends up at. He needs to get lost in the tower to discover this room and then leave the box there. Kellick says lost a gold cloak clasp some years ago that may be in there and would appreciate having it back. He offers one of the other 2 objects as a prize, a deck of many things and the fist of Emirikol. Pike agrees and immediately leaves the city for the ruins. As he leaves, he makes a scene at the gate on his way out. Sanna returns to the guild and learns that a number of major figures went to the tomb of Halmadar the Cruel and were all killed. The big players were brought back to life but the sword likely belonged to one of their cohorts. She meets the rest of us at the Green Dragon Inn. As we approach the bar, Gonoan tells them to give a free drink to everyone in the bar which earns him some huzzahs and thanks. Sanna looks around, sees Tenser and finally finds Bigby talking to Kellick which raises our eyebrows. Sanna approaches and shows the sword to Bigby who asks to look at it. He says it belongs to a friend of his and he would like it back. Sanna would like a reward, actually a favor, and requests access to the secret room in the mage guild. Bigby says that if the room existed it is not in the building she is thinking of. Bigby offers to see what he can do to help and asks what she would like in exchange for the sword. She wants to ask the rest of us. Kellick leans in and asks where Pike is. She responds that he was last talking to him so he should know. Kellick says he asked him to do a task but didn’t expect him to go so soon. He then excuses himself. Pike is walking through woods and hears someone following him. He hides and hears some rustling. He believes it is someone of small stature like himself and has a general idea of where it is currently but can’t see anyone despite feeling that he should. It climbs a tree and Pike determines that it must be invisible or something similar. All of a sudden, he hears it take off down the road at a run. Pike continues on, moving silently. At the Green Dragon Inn, we talk to Rikard while Sanna talks to Tenser, both sharing our adventures. Sanna attempts to convince Tenser to tell us about the secret room and give us access. He says that it is not in his abilities to access. He will try and see what he can do and then leaves. sAnna does give the sword to Bigby without asking for any more reward. The bar begins to lean towards dead drunk so we go home. On the door is a note with a door symbol outlined in silver, a purplish column beneath it and Zagig written below that. Gonoan opens the door and closes it, suddenly there is a shimmering door shape hanging right in front of him. He sticks his hand through and Beltin pushes him in, and follows behind. There is a bed, dresser, table with 2 chairs, a few books and another door. We all enter and Sanna says it looks like a study room from the wizard’s guild. Nat says he doesn’t like it here and runs out. We look around and have Elaine hold the door open. Gonoan opens the other door and there is a hallway with other doors identical to this one as well as a couple of double doors. Is Zagig’s key behind one of these doors?

Pike climbs the statue while Nat counsels that at least some of us should move outside the room and shut the door. Pike examines the head and gem but finds nothing odd so tries to remove the gem and a burst of magical energy surges through the room but there is no perceivable effect. The statue begins to move so Nat casts prayer on the room, and Beltin scoots over and hits it with acid. Pike tumbles off its back while Sanna teleports a few feet away and hits it with an electrical orb. Obregon hits it with 4 arrows and Gonoan moves up to hit it but misses. The stone golem swings twice at Pike, hitting once. Beltin breathes acid at it again, Pike misses with a bolt and Sanna finishes it off with some more electrical orbs. It crumbles to rubble but we are able to recover the somewhat damaged large emerald eye (500gp). We shut the door and search the room. Pike discovers a secret door in the wall behind the golem. He manages to get it open and it reveals a small room with a chest opposite the door. We search the room and find nothing else. Pike checks the chest and opens it, revealing coins, gems, and an exquisitely crafted sword +1, neutral alignment with “enchanted by Bigby for elvish prince, Elibriel”. Beltin picks up the sword and feels a wave of weakness flow over him and immediately drops the sword. Pike picks it up and feels nothing. Sanna feels its probably about 30 years old. Beltin continues to dig through the chest and finds a scroll in a case. There is 1000pp, 3000sp, and 3 gems. We move back to the room the snake was in and go through the other door and find a small storeroom with several clubs and other rusted weapons. We search the room and find a secret door. Pike is able to open it and finds a small passageway with no other obvious exits. He finds another secret door and it opens on to the room with the dead Cyclops. We head back toward the fountain and go north. This passageway has a door to the right a short ways down and one on the left near the end. The first door opens onto an empty room with a passage that leads to a stairway and another door. The door opens on to an odd shape room with some stairs going down and a passageway. The stairs lead down towards an area we have already explored. Obregon looks around and can tell trolls and a human have been through here. The door leads to an empty room with another passage that dead ends. We find a secret door which appears to have not been opened in a really long time. Pike figures out how to open it and see evidence of an epic struggle between a human and a giant unidentifiable creature whose hands are wrapped around each other’s throats. There is something about the room that seems off so Sanna detects magic and senses a strong aura of illusion. Sanna steps in and the battle comes to life as this huge magical creature appears hale and hearty. The door has vanished and the rest of us seem to be gone. She is able to see through the illusion but not before an involuntary stream of urine runs down her leg. She warns the rest of us to stay out, takes Pike’s goggles of minute seeing and searches the room but finds nothing of interest. We return to the hall from the fountain and go to the door at the end, behind which is a room with a door and passageway which leads back to the room with the stairs going up. We open the door, smell smoke from an old fire and see 4 straw mats belonging to some hobgoblins. There is a door across the room that appears to be frequently used behind which is a crude stone altar with a crude wolf head above and it is covered in blood. The items of value have been removed. We decide this is enough humanoid movement that should be reported so we go to the room with the stairs. There used to be stairs down but they have been filled with boulders and rubble. There are caltrops scattered around this room but nothing else of interest. We head up the stairs until we are in familiar terrain as these are the stairs we used to first come down in to the tower. The portcullises are still down so we use the blink ring to bypass them. After we get through the first, we come across a ghost that appears to have been a fighter with a bastard sword and short bow. Gonoan sets himself on the landing as Sanna casts a flame strike at it which it ignores. Beltin steps up and breathes acid at it which does appear to hit. The ghost moves up to merge itself with Gonoan whose attack goes off but passes through. He gets another swing but still cannot connect. The ghost merges itself with Gonoan and asks if we shall continue our way out of the dungeon. Natauru manages to cast it back out and it flees up the stairs. Let’s get out of here…

Sanna moves up and hits the remaining 3 rust monsters with a lightning bolt, killing them all. We hear more of them coming from the door behind Sanna. We ready ourselves for them to enter. As the door swings open, Obregon hurts one, Pike misses another, and Beltin hits them all including Sanna with acid. They attempt to attack sanna’s armor but miss. Sanna then blows them up with a lighnting ball. We finish searching the room and find 5 gems(1000gp, 10gp, 2×50gp, 100gp). We peek out the 3 other revolving doors and see short passageways, 2 of which end at revolving doors and the other goes to a t junction. We head towards the t junction and see both directions run 20’ to revolving doors. We peek through the east door and see a room filled with detritus from adventurers and monsters of no value that was likely thrown here by the orcs to appease the rust monsters. There is a revolving door in the far corner which likely leads back in to the orc warren. We go back the other direction, open the door and see a similar room with less debris but no exit. We find nothing of interest in this room so return to the main room again. We take the next door and find another room much the same; again with nothing of interest. We return and go east and find a slightly larger room with a broken chest and an intact table. There is a door in the east wall and passageway to the west. The passageway goes into another room which does contain humanoid remains. The door opens to a passage that ends at a barricade. The other room is mostly empty with a passageway to the north. After 10’, there is a passage to the east that opens to a room. We go in there and see another passageway which quickly ends at a barricade. We go back to the main passage and continue north until we enter the room from which we started this area. We end up back at the original barricade and head away from it down the other passageway. We come to a door we have not gone through, but hear noises from the off the previous room. Gonoan thinks it some version of giant. While we decide to check it out, Pike opens the door in front of us and there is a magnificent glowing sword embraced by a giant snake. Sanna attempts to hit it with an orb but misses while Beltin kills it with acid. This room has another door and several decomposing bodies near it. The glow from the sword is fading leaving a +1 longsword (small) that glows when held. We search the room and find nothing of value but hear something large is trying to move towards us quietly. We move back to the previous room and move to the door concealing the noises and Gonoan opens the door. There is a giant with one eye in this large room and we can sense there are others around the corner. Sanna drops a lightning ball in the room. Beltin hits it with acid while Obregon puts an arrow in its eye, dropping it to the ground. Pike moves forward and hides. Three Cyclops move up and look down the hall at us. Gonoan charges the closest, accepting a glancing blow from its club on the way but getting in a vicious chop of his own. Sanna drops another lightning ball, killing one. Beltin runs up, accepting a glancing club blow, but hitting him back. Obregon puts arrows in the same one while Pike puts a bolt square in its chest. Both Cyclops attempt to hit Beltin twice but fail to connect. Gonoan hits the other with his axe twice. Sanna finishes them both off with magic missiles. This room has another door recessed in the far wall. There is a small fire going and straw pallets, 46 gp and a gem worth 7gp. We check the door and it appears to be better made than most and it is stuck. Gonoan and Beltin manage to force it open. This room is a large, round and magically lit room with a large statue of a Cyclops-kin in the center whose eye is a large gem. There are many bones scattered around this room. Sanna finds magic auras all around this room, including the statue and walls. Pike walks up to the statue and walks around it, looking closely but finds nothing hinky. Sanna moves in and examines the statue, and discovers it is a stone golem but it has not activated. Pike searches the base of the statue and believes it is sculpted and not petrified. He is eyeing the gem in the statue with obvious greed…

We see a handful of orogs and a lot of orcs approaching from the next couple of rooms. Pike leads off by putting a bolt through an orcs neck and Beltin melts the remaining 5 in the first room. Obregon kills 2 more after climbing the barricade. Sanna climbs over and kills 2 with magic missiles while Gonoan climbs over and moves in to the first room. The remaining 3 orogs move up and throw javelins at Sanna but can’t seem to hit her. The orcs move out of view while Nat climbs over to our side. Pike puts a bolt in one of the orogs while Beltin runs up and hits another. Obregon finishes off the 2 damaged orogs and injures the last one. Sanna moves up behind Beltin, pats Gonoan and tells him to have fun and proceeds to do nothing. The orcs start retreating but 4 of them do stop to toss javelins at Gonoan though only 2 hit. He shrugs it off as if it ain’t nothing but a thing. Natauru warns us in an ominous voice that there are a LOT more orcs. Pike hits another orc with a bolt while Beltin runs up into their midst. They have no weapons in hand so don’t try to hit him on the way by. Obregon moves up to where he can see and Sanna kills another one with an ice knife. Gonoan charges and kills another and the rest attempt to flee while drawing their weapons though 2 fall to Beltin as they try to pass him. We are now faced with a closed door and the hall that the remaining couple of orcs flee down. Pike moves up to join the group while Beltin catches up to the running orcs, taunting them as he goes. Everyone else moves up and the orcs try to hit Beltin but fail so he kills them each with a single blow. We go back to the door we saw previously which Pike proclaims is safe. It opens on to a medium sized room containing straw pallets and the remains of partially eaten animals. It smells overwhelmingly of orc and refuse but contains nothing of obvious interest. Gonoan and Beltin move to keep watch as Pike and Obregon begin searching the room but very quickly we hear hordes of creatures moving at us from both directions. Pike moves up next to Beltin who moves up and breathes acid on the oncoming horde, killing 7 orcs and injuring 3 orogs. Sanna moves towards the other group and casts a blade barrier around herself though she is now in the dark. Nat yells no and runs up behind her. Some of the orcs move up and throw javelins at Sanna but can’t seem to hit her even though she can’t see. The orcs from the other side try to swarm Beltin though he manages to kill 4 of them as they do so. One he hits so hard, his morning star gets caught in its spine and he uses that corpse to crush the head in of another. Obregon uses his arrow storm to kill 5 orcs and injure 2 orogs. The orogs move up but don’t get any attacks off. Gonoan charges an orog and attempts to knock it back but actually bounces off of it. Pike hits an orc with a bolt, Sanna blasts 11 with electricity and Beltin kills 5 with acid breath. The last 3 on beltin’s side swing at him but miss and then try to run away but fall as he hits each of them. There was one still at the barricade, who looks scared and runs away. We finish searching the room but find nothing so we keep going even though we can hear orc noises somewhere off in the distance the way we came. As we move down, the hall opens into a large room with a couple of doors and a passageway. This appears to be their lair. It is deserted but it seems they just left down the passageway. We check both doors, one of them is a largish empty room with a barricaded exit across from us. The second door leads to another hallway with a couple of doors that open into family living areas. We go down the passageway in to another room with a door and a hallway. Behind the door is a slightly nicer bed room with nothing of interest but there is a secret door. Pike gets it open and it is empty for which he wails his frustration. We continue to follow the orcs and begin to see evidence of rust monsters on the floor. We come across a door that appears to pivot on its center. Pike checks the door and pivots it open revealing a room with nothing but wood and cloth and rust and revolving doors in the center of each wall. Booted foot prints have passed through here somewhat recently as well as rust monsters. We begin searching the room and begin to hear insect like chittering in the distance. We begin readying for battle, Pike hides and Beltin climbs on to the ceiling. The door opposite us opens and 4 rust monsters begin coming through. Sanna hits one with a ray while Obregon finishes it off. He then puts 2 arrows in another. The monsters come in and gang up on Obregon. They manage to dissolve his armor and mace. What will they eat before we stop them?

The hallway ends at a door left open by the minotaurs. This is obviously Jhinjahr’s treasure chamber, with a large chest near the back of the room. Pike picks the lock but a fire trap goes off giving him some 3rd degree burns. The chest contains 2 jeweled rings, spear+1, trident+2sm, shield+1, long sword+1, 2450 gp, 6790 sp, 3300 cp. Next we head back to the room where the wizard was killed and open the other door. This 30×30 room appears to have been inhabited by a bunch of trolls but otherwise is empty. There is another door we haven’t checked yet to the south and we approach it warily. It is unlocked and opens to reveal a (surprise, surprise) 30×30 room. There is a large gold statue in this room which has been melted and chipped at enough to make it virtually unrecognizable. There are also 3 unarmored humans in this room who appear to be meditating. They are monks of Zuoken. Pike calls out “so you’re evil monks” and they reply “what would it matter if we were good, evil, lawful or whatever.” We ask their intentions and they say they are here looking for their lost god and to recover treasure. They don’t intend to attack people who aren’t aggressive. They have laid claim to this idol but not anything else. Obregon sketches them up a quick map of the level and offers it to them. In thanks, they tell us that to the southeast there are a number of rust monsters. They also let us know that they have encountered a couple of Cyclops, and giant snakes up above. We go off to the secret door with the stairs leading down and they open on to a long hallway. As we move down, Obregon figures out that the wizard has been down here and back recently. Ahead is a pile of bones. Pike and Obregon move up and examine them, discovering a portcullis in the ceiling. The bones have no items, indicating their gear has already been removed. Pike discovers a trap but springs it accidentally, dropping portcullises on both sides of the bones. We lift the first one, pass under it and let it drop. The second won’t budge and now the first is stuck as well. Pike blinks out past the far one and searches for a mechanism to open them. After a short ways, there are stairs going up. He suspects it may be at the top of the stairs so heads up and finds a secret door. He manipulates the mechanism to open the door and sees an empty room with passageways to the north and south but no way to open the portucllises. He comes back to the party and we all blink out. We go up to the room with the north/south passageways. To the south is dusty and rusty while to the north is a door. We head north to the door which opens to a hallway going east and west. One way is blocked by an improvised barricade behind which we believe something is hiding. Pike calls out to it but it doesn’t respond. Sanna calls out in draconic to no response as well. We see some spears poking through and moving slightly. Beltin begins walking towards them as we hear a noise behind us. There are 4 rust monsters moving up the hall towards us. Pike bolts towards the barricade while Obregon casts entangle catching most of them. Sanna drops a firestorm on them, destroying them instantly. We head back towards the barricade. We believe they are orcs and Obregon can tell there are only 2. Pike runs up, jumps and grabs the top of the barricade, pulling himself up on top. Beltin climbs up the wall, across the barricade on the ceiling and melts them with acid. Beyond appears to be a series of chambers and what sounds like a lot more orcs. Time to play.

Sanna drops another lightning ball over the back half of the room while Beltin jumps across and trades hits with a troll. Gonoan hears some chanting from where the wizard ran away and then kills the troll in front of him. 2 of the trolls move after the wizard. Beltin gets hit once and Gonoan gets missed and the others move up closer. Obregon uses arrow storm and hits 4 of the remaining 7. Sanna jumps across, accepting a claw to the face in order to cast shout, killing 3. Beltin breathes acid again killing another. Gonoan chops down the one in front of him and then takes off after the wizard. One troll charges Gonoan and hits him while the other hits Beltin twice. Pike hits the one on Beltin, square in the chest. Obregon finishes off both of those remaining. We all move towards the passage that the wizard escaped down. It turns out to be a large room with doors on the east and west walls. The one to the west has a mechanism near it. Pike finds nothing hink so Gonoan opens the western door. It opens onto another large room with a door to the south which is just closing. Beltin spikes open the first door while the rest of the party moves up and opens the other door. This leads us back in to the room with the dissolved trolls. Tracking leads us through the south door. Gonoan goes through first and gets slimed. We try to remove it from him as it begins to sap his life force and using a combination of hand weapons as scrapers and Pikes mage hand, we are able to remove the slime. Nat and Beltin team up to cure the damage it caused while Pike listens at the door. He doesn’t hear anything and Gonoan opens it. Obregon sees that the wizard and trolls are heading back to where they started so we retrace our steps and as we get to the door with the mechanism, we see a troll arm closing the door. Suddenly, the floor tilts and we are sliding toward a wall of spikes. Everyone but Beltin and Obregon slam in to it as they manage to find hand holds. The door reopens and one of the trolls appears in the doorway. Pike climbs back up the slope and hits it with a bolt. Beltin moves back up and spits acid, hitting both trolls and the wizard. Sanna tosses a lightning ball in to the room, dropping all of them. We climb back in to the room and loot the bodies. The wizard has 2 rings(regeneration, prot +3) and each of the trolls has a ring(fire resistance). We search this room and find the other door is not trapped but has been heavily traveled by trolls. We then check the room with the pit and find this door not locked either but has only been traveled by the wizard and a 2-legged hooved creature. The room through here has another door opposite and open doorways north and south. Gonoan hears people moving up towards the door on the other side of the pit and we can see some flickering torchlight coming closer. Obregon finds some tracks which just lead to a wall in the south room and then stops. Pike finds a secret door and figures out how to open it. The approaching people appear to have gone a different direction as the light vanishes. Through the secret door there are stairs going down. We go back and open the door to the east and see 2 plush chair and several tablets. Sanna read the tablets and they are from someone named Jhinjahr and details what he is doing (watching adventurers die in a trap, needing to get more gold from the idol). Obregon finds a secret door in the south wall. Pike finds the mechanism to open it and we hear some sort of noise coming from the other side. Gonoan opens the door and we see 2 minotaurs growling at us from down a long hallway. Obregon fills the first with arrows, killing it outright. Beltin spits at the second one with acid while Sanna hits it with an orb. Gonoan charges it and kills it with his axe. Was that too easy?

Gonaon, Beltin and Obregon attempt to move the item but manage to topple it on themselves. It turns out to be a huge steel mirror. After dusting themselves off, there is a corridor heading off behind here. It goes down a ways and turns. As we move into the next corridor, there is a statue of a troll down the hall that looks very lifelike as if it had been turned to stone, not carved. We all look at our feet except Obregon who watches around and as we move up, he notices a stone wizard on the right facing a crack in the wall that appears to have been dug out. We continue to move forward and when we pass the troll, Pike moves 15’ ahead of the rest of the party. He is near the wizard and can see the crevasse goes back about 20’ and there is stone bugbear here as well. At the back is a pile of rubble which appears to have been built up to block the way. We decide to not mess with this and keep going. We pass another stone troll and a sign which says “Danger, do not enter”. Obregon notices that the trolls were moved to their current position by someone else. After that, we come to a 4 way intersection that looks familiar but we can’t be sure. So we head down the passage we believe goes towards the tower of magic until we come to the troll lair in the ceiling. We decide to head up and go through the hole that the baby trolls escaped in to. Obregon, Gonoan and Beltin take reduce person potions while Pike removes his armor. Sanna and Nat are going to stay behind. We move down the passage and it gets very narrow and turns. We begin to smell troll and hear noises that make this seem to be a major troll lair. We move to the end of the tunnel and look out. It is a large cavern with ledges along its walls. There are shapes moving up and down from the ledges. There are 5 she trolls, 5 teenage trolls and a number of younger ones living here. We decide to move back before our spell wears off and then head back the way we came. After returning to the stairs, we move down to the 8th landing and find a piece of parchment on the wall that looks to have come from someone’s journal “wandering now for over a week. I’ve decided to take my own life before the undead eat my soul. If you have come this far, you are doomed, sir, doomed.” We move down past the 9th and at the 10th see another note on the wall. “O St Cuthbert, hear me my body is failing this cursed disease. Please take my spirit from this horrible place. I beseech thee, end this nightmare”. We keep heading down and around the 11th landing, Sanna detects strong conjuration magic here, but is unable to determine why. We keep going as the air starts to get stale and weak. After 9 more landings without finding anything, we go back up and find ourselves only having to go back up 5 to reach the 10th landing again. This must be some kind of magical trap to prevent adventurers from going any further. We begin searching the area from the 10th to 11th thoroughly, hoping to find a cause or way around this phenomenon. We are unable to find anything to help. We go back to the 3rd landing and the hallway that the trolls were in to rest. We heal up and set our watches. The evening passes uneventfully. In the morning, we decide to head back to Greyhawk to gear up but decide to stop at the crevasse so Gonoan can try and see what is beyond the rubble. Before we reach the first stone troll, however, Gonoan spots a thick bodied reptile with 8 legs and glowing eyes. He immediately moves up behind the troll. Beltin yells out to see what is going on and then moves up beside Gonoan behind the troll. Pike hits it dead center with a crossbow bolt while Sanna drops a lightning ball on it, killing it. We go back in to the crevasse, find the creature had burrowed out and we finish opening it up. We can tell that at least part of the rubble is from stone creatures and humanoids. On the other side is a strangely dark room. There are several stone adventuring types in here and there is a door and a passageway out of this area. In the passage is a dwarven warrior turned to stone as it was turning to flee and another passageway beyond him. Pike checks the door and opens it to see…

We move down on to the landing and the portcullis does not fall. Beltin sticks his head through the illusion and sees a narrow room with 2 old corpses. The bodies have been here for several weeks and have nothing of value. It seems that someone left them here and planned to come back to get them but never did. There are no other exits from this room, even using the secret door wand. We move down some more flights and on the 3rd landing we find another illusionary wall. Beltin sticks his head through again and suddenly we hear the sound of portcullises dropping, one immediately behind us and the other back upstairs. Beltin sees a line of armored trolls behind the illusion. He spits acid at them, hitting the first 6. The lead troll then hits Beltin with a claw. Gonoan leans in and puts his axe into the front one. Pike sets up to take a shot while Beltin hits the front troll with his morning star and then steps back. Obregon sends 2 arrows through the illusion and manages to kill the first one. The trolls move the body back and the next one steps up and hits Gonoan. Sanna casts a lightning bolt through the illusion as Pike takes a shot through as well. Beltin then breathes acid down the hall again while Obregon takes several shots. A troll steps through the illusion and hits Beltin. Sanna casts another lightning bolt. Gonoan chops and fells the one in front. We hear them moving but none appear. Sanna moves up and casts yet another lightning bolt. Gonoan charges in, nimbly dodging a claw, and kills another one. Beltin does the same taking down another. Obregon sends more arrows through the illusion. The last troll steps up and hits Beltin once. Sanna runs up, gives Beltin a superior smirk, swings at it and whiffs. Beltin gives her a withering look, kills it and yells “booyah” in her face. They are each wearing large size chain mail which we decide to leave for now. There is another illusionary wall a ways back and then the corridor dead ends. We move down another level, then another until we find an additional illusionary wall at the 5th level. Beltin looks through again, seeing a 20’ alcove. Sanna checks it for secret doors and finds one at the rear through which we find the trolls lair. We recover 5 fire opals in a velvet lined wooden case(1000gp each), 470 gp, 290 pp, shield 3M(oak and staff symbol), splint mail2M, chain mail +1of dwarven makeM. We pack it up and head to the sixth landing, then the 7th where Pike finds a gas trap that appears to have not been reset in a long time. On the wall, is scrawled some writing in an old version of common, basically bragging. On the 7th level we find a secret door. Pike checks it out and hears sounds like something is being moved around behind the door. We are unable to find a way to open it; Pike surmises it is bolted on the inside and can’t be opened from this side. Pike uses his Knock spell on it and it moves back and opens. There is a 20’ wide passageway behind it with a large bulbous creature with multiple eyestalks floating in the air a short way down. Pike and Obregon are stunned by its gaze while Beltin spits acid at it. Sanna casts flame strike on it, killing it outright. Around it is treasure in piles containing 2000 gp, assorted treasure worth 19360 gp, scroll of tongues7, cure critical wounds7, scrying9, and summon natures ally III5, wand of mirror image 3 w/13 charges. Beltin and Gonoan move down to the end of the corridor where a large framed object has been forced in to place, blocking further movement. How do we get this out of the way?

We gather up our gear, and on the 12th of Patchwall, we make our way to the ruins. Upon arrival, we begin drinking our potions; Gonoan and Beltin grow to large size with impressive muscles and Sanna can now see invisible. The plan works flawlessly, the golem manages to breathe its poison gas on Gonoan and Beltin but manages to do nothing else before being beat down. As we catch our breath, Sanna notices the ogre mage standing on top of the tower watching. She immediately throws 3 scorching rays at it and it falls. Beltin spider climbs the tower, sees the ogre mage laying on the ground and notices another ogre at the rear of the tower. He calls out ogre and the team moves to climb up. This level has debris everywhere and large holes in the floor. Everyone makes the climb easily except Sanna who falls on her pretty little ass. Beltin breathes acid on it and in return, it throws a javelin at him but misses. It calls out in a strange language and moves at us. Gonoan charges it and cuts it down. Pike begins searching the mage and notices its eyes opening and shocks the crap out of it with his lightning gauntlets. Then we hear large creatures moving around below us. Gonoan peaks down one of the holes in the floor and sees 5 ogres moving up a makeshift staircase towards us. Sanna moves up to the the doors on the lower level and throws a lightning ball at the group moving up the stairs. They all die instantly. Beltin moves up to the hole and yells at Sanna for killing them all. Pike finishes searching the ogre mage and finds a greatsword, and chain shirt. Obregon moves in to the door and looks around, spotting another group back a ways and another couple of ogres even farther back. Gonoan jumps down and runs in their direction. Sanna throws another lightning ball, killing the closer group again which irritates Gonoan. The last 2 run away. We search the area, finding their lair and a large stone chest. It is not trapped and Gonoan manages to open it. It is filled with assorted coins. As we begin to tally it up, we hear something moving our direction. Gonoan runs at it, shouting “Sanna, you won’t get it this time!” It appears to be a half-fiend or half-dragon. Beltin moves up and breathes acid at it. Obregon puts 3 arrows in it while Sanna tries to figure out what it is but can’t quite get it. Gonoan chops its legs out from under it and then takes off its head. After searching it, we find a breastplate+2, heavy shield+1, and a Morningstar+1. The chest contained 2300 cp, 1700 sp, 300 gp, 4 gems, 2 bottles. We search the rest of this level and eventually find a large trapdoor in the floor. We pause and take stock before opening it. It’s extremely heavy but we work together and manage to pull it open. A worn stair case descends in to the darkness. It circles down and down and down; we pause at the first landing and Sanna activates the detect secret doors wand. Approaching the second landing, we spot a gate recessed into the ceiling that will likely drop behind us. There is also an illusion on the far wall. We grab some stone from above and place it under where the gate would drop to hopefully keep it from sealing closed. Will this work?

We go home to rest. Sanna reads over the ledger we took from the cultists and finds a hand written receipt for the bones of Bluto from Ladav Idnorsea. It was delivered just days ago from the Bandit Kingdoms. Upon waking the next morning, we get ourselves ready and head back to the coaching company. On the way we hear about a commotion at the market. Someone’s head and fingers were put on displa but were quickly removed, it was supposedly Fids. We check out the area around the coaching company and decide to send Sanna and Beltin inside with Sanna doing the asking. Pike, Gonoan and Obregon take up places around the perimeter. Sanna walks in and asks for Garvent and Beltin comes in behind her. He is not in quite yet but they invite her to wait. Beltin begins asking about shipping products to various areas as a cover. A group of adventurers comes out of the inn and begin looking around. Gonoan and Pike hide themselves to keep from being noticed. The adventurers look at a coach pretty carefully before boarding, though there is no driver yet. Inside, we hear that Garvent is late which is unusual. After a half hour of waiting, the clerk tells Sanna that it doesn’t appear he is coming in. Sanna leans in close, kisses her and passes her a platinum piece and asks for his address. The clerk is unable to give that information but says that it takes him about a half hour to walk to work and he comes from near the green dragon inn. This is also near where the cultist house was. Meanwhile, the driver arrives at the coach and checks it out before climbing to his seat. They ride off. Beltin approaches the clerk and asks if she knows who he is. She thinks she may know and he assures her that he is who she thinks. That she should know he works with church of st Cuthbert and the night watch. He wants to know where Garvent lives and it is vitally important that we find him. She asks if she can verify his identity with the watch and he assents. She sends a page who returns and gives her the ok. She gets someone who can lead us there as a couple of the city watch show up to talk to Beltin. They ask about Fid and he tells them we followed the bounty posted. We follow the guide to the cultist’s house which has obviously been vandalized since last night. We begin canvassing the neighborhood but learn nothing new. We go to question Galamog again and ask where Garvent was sent. Beltin gives him the stare and he says that he is the go between to the forces in the ruins and will likely be heading to warn them somehow. He doesn’t know where he would go or how he would get there. We decide to see Tenser later in the day and tell him we discovered who desecrated Rigby’s body. In the meantime, we do some shopping. Obregon goes to the magic store and orders a couple of items. He notices a green ring which the shopkeeper says has a symbol of Zagyg on it. He believes it is an apprentice of Zagyg’s ring and might have some other powers(+2 vs saves, traps in ruins, knock 1/day). Obregon buys it, suspecting it may be the green ring we are looking for. Beltin gets a couple of potions from the mages guild to restock. That afternoon, we try putting the green ring on the statue we found in the ruins. Gonoan approaches the statue which grows large enough to hold the ring as he gets closer. When the ring is placed on it, it recedes into the wall and a hole with a ladder appears where it had been sitting. The ladder goes down 20’ and opens in to a 20×20 room. This room is lined with bookshelves full of very old arcane books. There is a pedestal in the center of the room with a book on it. There is a cloth book mark running through it with a ring tied to the end of the book mark. The book appears to be of Boccob. Sanna pulls off a random book and reads through it. She then detects magic in the room and the pedestal(strong permanency, baleful polymorph), book(Blessed book of boccob, locked, 12500gp) and ring(of sustenance 2500gp) are magical. She determines that knowledge checks in this room are easier than normal. She also tries to unlock the book with Zagygs key to no avail. We leave the room and remove the key which causes the room to close. We go to the mage’s guild to meet with Tenser. Sanna and Beltin go in to meet with him. We share what we learned about Vokos and Rigby and the other cultists. He is grateful that we accomplished that task for him. After leaving, we wait around town anticipating the attack. Rigby will be buried on the 8th of patchwall. Beltin meets with Eritae the next day and shares our adventures with her. She has people watching the ruins and there is some activity going on. They appear to be getting supplies somehow but they can’t find how. The war tower has contained only standard creatures. Ogres have been seen around the tower of power and she suspects an ogre mage is involved. She offers a free raise dead if we investigate. The iron golem is still around and seems to be healed by an imp of some sort. She doesn’t believe there is an imminent attack anymore since we defeated the general. She feels we are good at gathering information and blocking the cults plans. She suggests that destroying the ruins would be beneficial to the region. She also believes we are strong enough for the tower of power and would like us to be the heroes of the city. Sanna takes Narebos hand to the mages guild to have it identified. It is +3, intelligent, and chaotic neutral. They are unable to determine anything else about it other than it has other powers and won’t activate until certain things happen. We gear up for the tower and to face the iron golem. Off to the tower of power we go.

There is a long hallway with 3 doors on the left, one on the far end of the right wall and an archway in to a dining room. Sanna rushes in, sees 2 cultists in the dining room and hits both with scorching rays. Beltin drinks a potion of bulls strength and moves to the dining room as well. Gonoan runs in and hits the nearest cultist with his axe. That one begins casting a spell and Beltin recognizes him as Galamog. Gonoan hits him and splits him down the middle before the spell can go off. The other cultist casts a spell at Gonoan, causing him to go blind. Obregon steps in and puts an arrow in him. Nat moves in next to Sanna while Pike runs up and stabs the caster through the kidneys. His lifeblood gushes and he falls. Beltin heals Gonoans blindness and then we head down the stairs. This large underground chamber has a round platform in the middle and a raised dais on the far end with a sarcophagus emblazoned with the bloody skull of Iuz. There is a lone cleric muttering while inscribing symbols on the platform. He finishes speaking as we enter and the sarcophagus begins to open. Pike moves up and puts a bolt in the cleric’s abdomen. A skeletal hand is rising from the coffin and we see it is a skeleton but it has internal organs and a grotesquely long tongue. Beltin and Gonoan move up and hack the cleric to pieces. Sanna casts a blast of electricity at the skeleton. Natauru attempts to turn the skeleton but fails and exclaims that is tough to turn in this room. Obregon moves in and hits it with 2 arrows. The creature rushes Gonoan and smacks him with his hideous tongue to no obvious effect. Beltin hits it with acid breath and moves around behind it. Gonoan chops it like a tree 4 times and it falls to pieces. Obregon and Pike begin searching the room. Nat checks the fallen so we can take captives while Sanna uses detect magic around the house. Gonoan keeps watch and Beltin goes outside to let the Arachnians know we have secured the building and thank them for their assistance. The center platform tests as magical and has several effects emanating from it; unhallow, circle against good and zone of truth. The cultist has splint mail+2(4500gp), heavy mace, scrollM, and a silver unholy symbol of Iuz. We go upstairs and find Vokos and an unknown female equipped the same as the one below. We also find assorted coins worth 134 gp, and a mummified hand on a leather cord (hand of glory, 8000gp). The 2 on the first floor are equipped the same as the others and we don’t find anything else of interest. Galamog is the only one left alive and Nat stabilizes him. We take him in to the basement within the zone of truth . We wake him, Beltin intimidates him and we interrogate him about why he wanted to silence Fid. They feared Fid knew they had killed Bluto since he had his boots. They are an independent cell and don’t know anyone else. There were 7 members of the cell. Galamog spied on merchants and nobles. Zirelle was in charge of the household itself and had a list of cell members. Asher spied on boccob and the city guards. Sarunsen was a carriage driver. Vokos threw the acid at Rigby and is a priest of Iuz. Garavent (not in the house) works in the Able Carter Coach company and all of their info was funneled through him. They were looking for Bluto Sanspite to turn him in to an undead creature which we then killed. Fid appears to have no connection to this group. They don’t know any other cells. Garavent would likely be able to add more information on Fid and his activities. We contact the nightwatch and turn Galamog and the others over to them. We warn them about the spells on the basement and turn over the notes and unholy symbols. Obregon, Pike and Beltin go to the Able Carter Coaching company looking for Garavent but he wont be in until morning. He is in for a bad day!

Beltin begins stripping Fid of his possessions as Pike and Obregon make their way over to join him. The rest of the party hangs at Fid’s shack. We take a Rapier, boots, studded leather, cloak, shortbow, arrows 20, and a potion. We store his stuff in our haversacks and Beltin picks up Fid and flies him back to the shack. Pike and Obregon make their way back and then begin searching the shack. Pike spots a hooded figure several building away peek up and cast a spell and then climb down. Pike opens the chest and finds Fids old clothes but also a secret compartment underneath the chest. Opening the compartment reveals coins, jewelry and gems. Beltin flies off after the hooded figure and sees them pull their hood off and it turns out to be a foreigner of some sort. Natauru also heads off after the stranger. Beltin drops down in front of him and asks why he was spying on us and casting unknown spells. The stranger walks around him and keeps going. Beltin puts himself back in front again. The stranger attempts to punch Beltin but he shrugs it off and so the stranger walks around again calling for help. Beltin follows and takes up the call for the watch. At the same time, Pike and Obregon finish searching the shack but find nothing else of value. They empty the compartment and the party heads out before others show up. We decide to head to the abandoned thieves safe house with Fid. Obregon heads off to try and find Beltin. Meanwhile, Beltin and the stranger enter the nightwacthman’s stand. The stranger claims to be a merchant named Galamog, and feels he should be known. The Nightwatchmen do recognize Beltin and write down the incident but do nothing else. Galamog leaves in a huff. Obregon grabs Beltin and they head to the safehouse. Beltin heals Fid just enough to awaken him. We begin to question him but he appears to be deaf. Beltin uses his healing to reverse it. Then he tells us that he steals the items on consignment and only works through middlemen and doesn’t know anyone else. The Black Razor is likely on its way to white plume mountain with cultists of Iuz. He doesn’t know anything about Laurus Racknian but if he gets the razor he will likely be able to unlock its potential. He does not know who he stole it from or for. Sanna shoots a lightning ball in the outer room and threaten to use one on him if he doesn’t talk. He still doesn’t really give us any answers and then Obregon notices the watch responding to the explosion. We knock out Fid and move in to the sewers. We then wake him up and continue to question him. He tells us of the Seekers who like to acquire strange items, specifically the demon box this time. We knock him out again while Pike and Obregon head to see Tiira and find out where she wants Fid delivered. She sends a couple of guys with us to collect him. They put him in a small box and tie it shut. They take him to a warehouse and add the box to a room full of similar boxes. We go to meet Tiira and collect our reward. She asks us to see the items we took off of him. She advises we don’t keep the boots as they belong to Sir Bluto Sanspikes and his rogues may come after them. She does offer us 2000 gp or a magic weapon. She pulls out a large case which we take. We go home and open the box, inside is Narebos hand a really awesome looking Greataxe. A +3 intelligent weapon with other abilities we can’t ascertain. We don’t know anything else yet so Sanna picks it up and attempts to communicate with it. It does nothing so Gonoan takes it up and it damages him. As we are trying to figure it out, Nat returns and says he followed the merchant to an underground safe house where the cultists are hiding. Vokos is there and they have a summoning circle they appear to be using within a day. We ask logistical questions and make a plan of attack. While we make our plans, Beltin goes out to meet with the Arachnians and see if they would like to help. They send 6 warriors with us and we have them set up a perimeter to prevent escape. Pike and Obregon scale to a second story window and make their way in. The first bedroom is unoccupied so they move in to the hallway and check the next door. Pike hears someone moving around so sneakily opens the door while hiding and shoots the cultist inside this room but it doesn’t kill him. Obregon steps up and hits him with 3 arrows, taking him down. They move to the next door, open it silently to find another cultist. Pike hits him with a bolt, spinning him around. Obregon plants 3 arrows in him as well, killing him. They check the remaining room and no one is in there. They sneak down the stairs and open the front door for the rest of the party. Cowabunga dudes!

We make our way home and Elaine immediately heads to her room to take a bath. We pool our loot and sell it for 1,673 gp, 7 sp. We begin discussing what to do next. We talk about opening a storefront for the Order. We are leaning towards waiting in town for a bit, anticipating the attack on Greyhawk. The next day, Pike, Gonoan, Obregon and Beltin head out to the thieves guild safehouse where Pike last saw Tomas Radic. The signs have been changed and it has been boarded up and it’s pretty dilapidated on the inside. We look around, but don’t find anything interesting. Obregon can verify that a few people have been through here but no one is present now. We leave and Pike notices that we are being watched by a member of the beggar’s guild and a people’s constable (a wing of the thieves’ guild). The constable is hanging posters for Fid “Quickfingers” Dulamin, wanted for theft; 1000gp reward. He has pulled off several burglaries and robberies. We know Fid from when we rescued him at the underground arena. Pike is livid and determined to find Fid and bury him. We begin asking around and find that he has stolen some legendary items; warhammer(Whelm), sword(Black Razor), and possibly others. These are believed to be from White Plume Mountain. We try to track who has paid for the posters but no one wants to give names. We begin to move around town attempting to gather information on Fid. Meanwhile Sanna, Nat and Elaine head to the mage’s guild where Sanna talks to her contact and relays our most recent information up to the clay golems chamber. She also passes the vial of healing water to him. Then she researches the shield and the control panel. The shield is very old, from the Cairn Hills, unusual metal, could have been used as an actual shield, and the magic is likely older than the city itself. The healing water will likely have lost its magic by now. The rest of us are beating the streets looking for info on Fid. We learn he had been active quite a while ago, was arrested 3 times but escaped each time. We decide to attempt to have him scryed upon. We learn he is on a roof top at a table eating and his loot is near him. He is outfitted pretty well since we saw him last. He seems to be in a poor part of town, on a dead end alley, probably the River Quarter above where an old woman lives. Pike and Obregon go to meet with Tiira and the rest of us head out to the River Quarter immediately and begin canvassing for a 2 story building with a shack on the top. There is one person already talking to Tiira, a homely female rogue. She is being promised a better reward than advertised for being a member of the guild. We notice her looking at Pike. We step forward and Tiira is dismissive of Pike’s wanting to take a bounty. She does tell us that Fid has been a thorn in the guilds side for a while. She offers a magic item or gold for his capture, dead or alive. She has also not heard from Radic and doesn’t care. We are not allowed to keep the stolen items and she gives us a list. They head back to meet the rest of the party and on the way notice several people following them so attempt to hide. Obregon detects them trying to trick us into thinking they all walk on when one stays behind and tries to climb up a building but falls. We take a different route and lose them. We begin moving around the River Quarter looking for the building Fid is on. We find one that meets the description. It has the dead end alley, its’ 2 stories and has a shack on the roof. Obregon climbs a building across the street to be overwatch, Pike sneaks up the stairs and Beltin spider climbs up the opposite wall. Gonoan waits at the bottom for Pike’s signal while Sanna is off to one side of the building. Pike checks the stairs for traps and finds a tripwire at the top of the stairs. He moves over it without disturbing it and signals to Gonoan that it’s there. He sneaks over by the door but doesn’t hear any noise coming from inside. He signals Beltin to move up the wall and checks the door for traps but finds none. He moves to open the door and hits a tripwire and hears a bell tinkling inside. Pike steps in and sets off another trip wire and the ringing of another bell. There is a bed, table and chest in this room. Fid has his armor on and is carrying a rapier; he appears ready to bolt past Pike. He immediately tumbles past Pike and jumps across to the next building where Obregon is but takes a hit from Beltin on the way. Pike attempts to jump across but doesn’t quite make it and is dangling from the roof. Beltin moves down and back up the other side, spitting acid as he comes up. Gonoan charges up the stairs and jumps across also. Obregon hits him with 2 arrows while Sanna and her posse begin moving around the building. Fid runs and jumps over to the next building, booking it away. Beltin takes a fly potion. Pike follows Fid and Obregon puts another arrow in him, causing him to fall. Beltin flies to him while Gonoan jumps back to the shack. Fid is captured.

AS we continue, we notice a lot of gear driven mechanisms around. They appear to be rust free and well maintained though this area does not seem to be well traveled. After a while, Gononan feels we have climbed about 50’ and it begins to look more familiar. Further on, we see a number of chambers that have been sealed off and magically guarded. Sanna believes breaking the magical wards will summon something to defend it. After wandering for a while, we determine there is only one exit. This large portal appears to be filled with a jet black shimmering liquid. Pike takes a closer look and believes it is not actually a liquid. Sanna thinks our presence may be causing the shimmering and if we touch it, it would ripple like jello. Pike finds 2 little holes about the size wands near it, and surmises that the would act like a keyhole. Sanna studies it with detect magic and the artificers monocle. She thinks it is survivable and moves you somewhere else. Beltin walks up and sticks his hand in it. It feels like thick mud when all of a sudden a claw comes whipping out of it but misses Beltin. He immediately backs up and nothing else comes out. We begin healing ourselves and trying to decide what to do next. We are leaning towards opening one of the sealed doors. Pike checks out a few and can figure out that there is a dead wizard buried in each, different ages but mostly nefarious. We will not be opening these at this time. Gonoan walks up to the portal and sticks his arm in and the claw rakes him. Pike, Sanna and Obregon ready actions to attack it when it appears at which time Sanna and Obregon each hit once. The claw hits Gonoan twice. He attempts to grab it and succeeds, moving in to the darkness. Pike runs up and jumps in to the portal, taking a shot at the creature but misses. Beltin calls for a sunrod to be activated and steps in but cannot see anything so steps back out. Obregon casts darkvision on him. Gonoan attempts to pull the creature out but fails. The creature then manages to pull free. Pike hits it but it doesn’t seem to do any damage. Beltin goes to step in again but the creature is in his way. Gonoan manages to grab the creature again. Beltin steps in and tries to hit the creature but fails. Gonoan attempts to move it again but is unsuccessful. Pike moves around and tries to shock it with his gloves but it does no damage. The ghoul attempts to escape but is unable to. Beltin swings again, connecting but doing minimal damage; its almost like it has hardness like an item. Pike moves back in and looks at the floating disk on the back side and it looks vaguely like a floating shield. He then pushes his arm through the other side and feels cool dry air. Obregon casts darkvision on himself and sticks his head in to see what is going on. The ghoul attempts breaking Gonoan’s grip again but fails. Beltin switches crystals and attempts a hit but misses. Gonoan succeeds in moving the creature against its will but apparently it cannot physically leave this area. Pike moves out the far side of this area and sees a large chamber filled with weapons of war. There is an umbilical cord connecting the glowing disc to the wall. Sanna moves in to the darkness, while Nat moves up and attempts to turn the creature resulting in its attempting to flee. We pass through while it cowers and Pike pulls the plug which then retracts in to the disc and it becomes a shield. Beltin attempts to put his arm back through the portal but it has turned solid. We detect magic around the room but nothing out in the open glows. There are some safes and cabinets but Beltin warns against looting until we determine where we are since if this is Greyhawk we would be stealing from our city. . We move around this huge chamber and are able to tell it is part of Greyhawks defenses and that people have moved through here in the last 24 hours. Most of the traffic moves up a main staircase. We follow the tracks and come to a set of grand double doors. Pike listens but hears nothing so opens a door onto a long hallway. We keep moving and come to another staircase going up. It feels like a dungeon now with heavy locked doors along the way. Pike stops to listen and can hear people behind them. It sounds like these people work here and haven’t slept well due someone named Noblok keeping them up. We go up yet more stairs and we begin to see windows. Upon looking out we can tell we are in the high quarter, likely in the grand citadel. We confidently walk out and are not stopped. Homeward bound…

Pike believes the creature will attack the first person through the door. Beltin spits acid at it but it doesn’t appear to have any affect. Sanna cast ice storm around it but it has no affect either but does make the area around the golem dangerous to us. Obregon fired 4 arrows but couldn’t get a clean shot due to the storm. When the storm fades, Beltin moves up and hits for some damage. Sanna casts blast of ice at it and it appears to do damage. Obregon charges and hits it solidly. A beam of energy shoots down from the ceiling and repairs the construct. It then swings twice at Beltin, smashing him once. Pike goes up the stairs and sees what appears to be a magical control panel. Obregon buries two arrows in it. Beltin hits it once while Sanna throws an orb of electricity, both of which cause damage. Gonoan takes a mighty swing and it falls. Pike fiddles with the panel but is unable to make it work. Sanna checks for magic and it lights up as does the water in the pool and the doors. Upon further examination, she believes that Zagyg built this himself and it is beyond our abilities to understand. She checks the water in the pool and believes it will heal upon submersion. Beltin volunteers to test it, disrobes and gets in the pool. Slowly, his wounds close. Sanna and Pike begin to play with the knobs and levers while the rest of us take shelter on the stairs. They begin to decipher the different panels and are able to close the doors we came through. We sleep well and wake refreshed. Obregon and Sanna fill vials with water from the pool. We open the other door and walk for several hours when the hallway ends at a complex looking door. There are parts hanging on the wall that look like they may work together to open it. Pike looks them over and decides to try knock instead. It fails to open the door, so he sits down and works out how to put the parts together. Gonoan works the pump that Pike built and the door begins opening. It sounds like there is liquid on the other side. He keeps pumping and the sounds of water stop. Eventually, the door pops open and the strong smell of sewage comes forth. Sanna believes that this is one of the many secret projects Zagyg is rumored to have built. We enter the sewer and the stench is horrible. Obregon looks around and notices that some serpentine creatures have moved around this area avoiding the sewage so we decide to do the same. As we move ahead we come to a 4 way junction and decide to go straight ahead towards where we hear a whirlpool. As we approach, the fetid grossness in the whirlpool begins to coalesce and move toward us. Elaine hits it with a magic missile, Pike puts a bolt in it and Obregon plants an arrow in it as well. Beltin hollers out to just move past it while he and Gonoan keep it busy. Sanna, Elaine, Pike, Obregon and Natauru begin to escape though Pike and Nat get ill due to the overwhelming stench. Suddenly, another elemental appears ahead of the fleeing members and slams Elaine to the ground. The original one hits Obregon twice for some heavy damage. Beltin spits acid at it and yells for everyone to go through the gate behind us instead. Pike and Obregon do just that, while Nat casts sanctuary and takes a step. Sanna moves next to Elaine and casts Flame Strike at the new elemental. It in turn attacks Sanna and smashes her to the ground also. The original attacks Beltin and hits once. Beltin hits it back. 2 human faced serpents appear out of sewer tunnels. Gonoan turns to attack one and falls under its charm. It orders him to attack the elemental which he does and hits twice. Nat moves up and stabilizes Sanna. Pike shoots at the original elemental but misses. It attacks Beltin but fails to hit while the other moves to join. One of the Nagas moves toward us. Beltin hits the original one again as does Gonoan after which it disintegrates. Pike and Obregon put shots in the second one. It moves up and hits Beltin. The naga moves up and says “you have weakend it, we will take over from here, please leave”. We begin to move away while Beltin keeps its attention. The elemental hits Beltin again while one Naga has summoned a horde of rats and the other tells us to leave as they have had trouble controlling these creatures but now that they are weakened, they can handle them. We withdraw and with Beltin’s fast healing get some health back; Sanna and Elaine wake up. Where to now?

Ready'reat 6, cy597

We begin heading down the passage to the left again. Gonoan feels we are in a very unstable area and should not go any further. We turn around and choose to continue down the original tunnel.
This stays pretty straight for quite a ways and Gonoan feels we are over 150’ down and that we are on a path towards the tower of magic. Obregon determines that it has been at least 25 years since anyone has traversed this area. We decide to stick it out and see where we come out. After a short ways we come across a T junction with a hall leading straight towards the tower of power and one directly away from it; we continue towards the tower of magic. Pike moves out in front to scout ahead with Nat. The tunnel becomes cavernous and opens into a large cavern where Pike smells a stench of waste. They move on and hear some movement from above. They immediately hide and 4 trolls drop down from a crevice in the ceiling. The rest of the party hears the movement and begins to head down the hall at a run, fearing the worst for Pike and Nat. Pike decides to attack the nearest troll from hiding, planting a bolt in its chest. One charges Beltin, hitting him with a claw. Another troll moves up and attacks Gonoan, hitting with a claw as well. Gonoan hits the front one twice with his axe. Nat moves away while Beltin hits 3 of them with acid breath. Sanna casts a lightning ball on them; we can smell their hair burning and 2 of them fall. Obregon plants 2 arrows in one and smacks it with an alchemist arrow. We can see a couple of their wounds close and they run away, pulling themselves into the crevice. Beltin spider climbs up the wall and along the ceiling to the crevice and enters. The rest of the party runs up underneath. Beltin sees another adult troll and several young in addition to the 2 who ran away. Gonoan tosses up a grappling hook that the rest of us use to begin climbing. 2 of the troll moms move between us and the young, who move towards a hole at the back while the other who has burst in to flame, stops, drops and rolls. Gonoan climbs up while Beltin moves forward and hits 2 with acid. Sanna climbs up and tosses another lightning ball, killing 2. Obregon moves up and kills the last one with 2 arrows. Pike climbs up and immediately finds a chest in an alcove and opens it revealing 12 potions. He searches it further and finds nothing else. A quick look around reveals only trolls sleeping areas. We regroup and move back on to the path. After a while, we reach a door with purple smoke coming out around it. Sanna taps her magely knowledge and infers that this is the same as up above. Sanna attempts to touch his Zagyg’s key to the door but cannot even get all the way up to it. Natauru brings up the dungeon master as someone who can overcome Grandfather Magic’s spell but does not actually want to use him. We head back to the T junction and head north. After 100’, it turns east. Another 100’, it turns south. At 200’ the tunnel widens to 15’ from 10’. Obregon notices evidence of Vroks and what was likely a battle with them. After we spend a couple of hours walking, we come upon a set of huge iron double doors with no handles or hinges. Elaine casts detect magic and it detects as difficult to read. Pike searches for a means of opening but finds none so casts knock at it and it swings open. The door is 3’ thick and opens on a massive chamber with a pool of murky water with steps on either side of the room to a bridge 20’ high and a 50’ high ceiling. The murk in the water draws together into a large muddy creature that peers menacingly at us…

Beltin spits acid at the undead bullette while Elaine shoots it with a magic missile. Sanna pounds it with a lightning bolt. Obregon puts 2 arrows in it while it tries to bite him. Gonoan freaks out on it and hacks it to pieces. He then digs through the remains, finds nothing and pulls one of its teeth. Obregon looks around and can tell that orcs and a vrock or 2 have been around down here. The rest of the party climbs down to join us and we start down the tunnel. We come across part of the passage that is worked stone which ends in a large chamber of rough rock mostly covered in mud. The vrocks footprints end at the edge of the mud. There is a small passage off to the left that does not go through the mud so we head that way. Gonoan hears a rumble and all of a sudden 4 creatures burst out of the ground around us. They are large with a maw on their back, 3 eyes and 3 arms. They move around blocking the exits and surrounding us. Gonoan moves closer to one and Pike moves away. Beltin and Sanna prepare to be attacked but we all hesitate as they could have hit us already but didn’t. One speaks and says “we smell food on you; gems and gold. Feed us and we will let you go, otherwise we will eat you and everything you carry”. We decide to close ranks and give them nothing. We prepare for battle; Sanna casts flame shield on us all. They reappear with 2 next to us and 2 blocking the exits. Pike gets off a sneak attack for massive damage on one. Both near us bite Gonoan but take acid and electrical damage for doing so. Beltin breathes acid on them as Obregon puts 3 arrows in the most hurt one. Sanna arcs lightning between the closest 2 and Beltin breathes acid on them. Sanna casts shout at them. One of them starts to retreat but Gonoan hits it as it goes and it disappears. The other 2 resurface next to Sanna. #2 strikes at Gonoan, hitting 4 times. The other 2 hit Sanna and try to push her into the deep mud but fail. Gonoan hits his again with Pike hitting it as well. Obregon kills #2 and hits #3 once. Elaine shoots #3 with magic missiles while Beltin steps up and smacks it with his morningstar. Sanna moves back and casts evards black tentacles which fails to capture either creature. Nat pours a sure serious potion down Sannas throat. #4 moves up and bites Sanna while 3 does the same knocking her out. Gonoan hits #3 twice and with Pike’s deadeye shot, it disappears. Obregon hits #4 twice and Elaine cries out, hitting it with magic missile. Beltin heals Sanna who then crawls away out of reach. #4 sinks out of sight, though Beltin gets one last hit in as it vanishes into the stone. We heal ourselves up while waiting to see if it resurfaces. Whew, that was close.

Pike and Obregon begin searching the rooms. The bedroom has nothing of value, neither does the kitchen or either pantry. We return to the door across from the conference room which opens onto a hallway with a door on the east wall a ways down. Pike checks the door, finds it has a very nice lock but manages to pick it anyway. It opens onto a hallway with several doors on the right and a chair at the end of it. Pike begins checking for traps along the hallway but finds none to the first door. It is locked and he picks this one also. It is a bedroom with military style cleanliness though appears to have not been used in years. We find nothing of interest. We move to the next door and it is very similar and equally boring. The 3rd door holds the same while the chair in the hall holds no secrets. We check the remaining doors on the other hall with no new results. We head down the main hall again which opens onto a large chamber supported by 2 large pillars. There a several tables clustered together across from 2 large cold fireplaces. There is a door immediately inside as well as doors around the outer edge of the room. Huddled around the tables are 12 figures in robes staring at golden objects. Obregon realizes that they are skeletons but they are not moving as of yet. The golden objects are a belt buckle, bracelet and a small chalice. Pike checks the first door and hears something skittering inside. Gonoan steps forward and opens the door. This room is filled with animal cages; along one wall are zombie hawks and the other has skeletal war dogs. They open their own cages and move towards us. Beltin steps in and breathes acid on the hawks killing all but 2. Sanna walks up and destroys half the dogs with an electric shout. Pike shoots a hawk but it does not hurt it. Gonoan moves in and kills one of the hawks as Obregon shoots and kills the other. He then shoots and takes out one of the remaining dogs. The last 5 dogs then attack, one immediately falling to Gonoan’s axe. They all fail to hit but we hear the doors in the large room open and zombie’s begin coming out. At the same time the skeletons at the tables begin to stir. Nat steps forward and attempts to turn them, apparently his god is with him as all of the skeletons crumble to dust and all but 4 zombies collapse in to piles of goo. Pike shoots one of the remaining zombies for minor damage. Elaine hits the same one with magic missiles, killing it. She has finally lost her monster killing virginity. Gonoan kills the 2 remaining skeletal dogs with ease. Obregon shoots and kills 2 of the last 3 zombies. The lone zombie survivor begins to move our way. Pike puts a bolt in it and Obregon finishes it off. We begin searching the area and after a while Beltin spots a group of adventurers coming down the hallway. They hold up their arms and declare they do not want to disturb us. Beltin tells them to just move on then and they back off. We finish searching and find NOTHING! What a let down. We decide to head down a few levels to the cell near Atolomyr’s quarters. On the way, we realize we never explored the bottom of the chasm off the stairs where we saw the large creature on its back. Pike and Beltin step off and feather fall down while the others climb down with ropes and climbing gear. Beltin can see the creature, which vaguely resembles a large lizard, seems dead but its eyes are moving. Sanna believes it is a bulette, a magical creature that burrows underground, and is difficult to hurt. Pike moves to the exit of the room from where he can smell water and mud. Obregon finishes moving down and the creature begins to move, flipping itself over. It now appears to be undead. Beltin climbs the wall with spider climb, Gonoan drops down and Pike tumbles past the creature to be near him. Scary!

We decide to head to the tower of War and attempt to find the missing section of the main level. We spend the rest of the day gearing up. We arrive at the camp of the St Cuthbertians and stop by to say hi. Eritae greets us and warns us of trolls in the center tower. To avoid the curse on the bridge, we climb down and back up the side and enter past the wardens. As we enter the tower, there are 4 sword wraiths awaiting us. Gonoan goes after one and gets in a good hit. 2 of them charge him and hit him back, causing him weakness. The other 2 approach but miss. Sanna hits 2 with an electric charge and Obregon finishes them off. Beltin hits the remaining 2 with acid. Nat attempts to turn them but fails while Pike shoots at one with his crossbow but it has no effect. Gonoan misses both and one of them gets in a hit on him. Sanna finishes them off. We take +1 breastplates, MW longswords, steel shields and torcs from each. We check the wall of the chamber attempting to find a way through but find nothing new. Beltin goes out and buys a mattock from the dwarf wardens. Gonoan begins battering down the wall. Once a hole is in the wall, Pike peaks in and it looks like a conference room with a long oval table with chairs around it. Gonoan finishes breaking through and we squeeze in. We explore the room and we are beset upon by 2 ghasts. Obregon immediately puts 2 arrows in one and in the process alerts the rest of the party to their presence. They begin to flee but Beltin’s acid breath and Obregons arrows take them down from behind. We find nothing of interest in this room. As we move down the hallway, we come upon a kitchen with a couple of tables. There is a lot of refuse in this room, something golden that has been smashed beyond repair and a scimitar lying in the far corner. We decide to open the door across from the conference room before heading in to the kitchen. It opens on to a long hallway with a door a short way down on the right. We head back in to the kitchen where there are 3 doors out. Pike checks out the door to the right when items in the room begin to float up and without pause Sanna casts burning hands on them. Obregon hits something invisible that is holding the spoon. Apparently there are invisible creatures wielding these items. 3 of his arrows go wide. Beltin breathes acid at them while Gonoan moves up, hitting one and killing it, we think, as its spoon drops to the floor. Nat turns the other 2 who flee. Sanna begins detecting magic through the room and finds the scimitar is magical. She identifies it as a scimitar +2 and Obregon holds on to it. Pike opens the door he was checking and it is a pantry empty of everything except a single flask. Pike has Elaine detect poison on it and it is indeed poisonous so he leaves it alone. He then moves to the next door, finds no traps, opens it and finds another flask in this pantry. Elaine checks it and it is poison also. He moves to the last door, finds no traps and after a couple of attempts manages to open it. This room contains several beds with feathers and debris scattered around. Pike notices objects begin to move and backs up. We brace for action. A chair leg comes floating out of the door and Beltin breathes acid at it. Another piece of the chair joins it. Pike shoots one and Sanna does burning hands again. The items drop to the ground. Pike listens at the door inside this room and hears what sounds like giant insects. He immediately hides and Gonoan opens the door. There are 2 monstrous scorpions in here. Pike puts a bolt in ones eye and it drops. Sanna shoots magic missiles at the other and destroys it as well. How convenient to pause in a bed room.

The adventure log is where you list the sessions and adventures your party has been on, but for now, we suggest doing a very light “story so far” post. Just give a brief overview of what the party has done up to this point. After each future session, create a new post detailing that night’s adventures.

One final tip: Don’t stress about making your Obsidian Portal campaign look perfect. Instead, just make it work for you and your group. If everyone is having fun, then you’re using Obsidian Portal exactly as it was designed, even if your adventure log isn’t always up to date or your characters don’t all have portrait pictures.

Pike immediately makes good his escape. Beltin steps up and says “walk away” to Obregon and calls to the bartender that the next round is on him, flashing a gold coin. Sanna and Nat move to the door and Obregon nods to Beltin and heads toward the door. Vokos tells the other patrons that its ok, let’s have the music back and the girls to dance. Beltin tosses the gold coin to the bartender who makes no attempt to catch it. Beltin’s eyes flash and he declares “that’s rude” and then asks Vokos if he can share a drink with him. Vokos says no, he is fine by himself. Sanna starts singing. Vokos apologizes for creating a scene and says he is leaving and moves to the side door. A couple of others go to leave with him. Gonoan comes back in and heads to the bar. Sanna notices the bartender casting detect magic. Obregon and Pike leave to try and follow Vokos. The bartender asks what we want and Beltin says we will take a drink out of that gold piece at your feet. A bat comes crawling out of his pocket, picks up the coin and crawls back in. He serves us a drink and returns the gold piece while introducing himself as One-eye. He asks what we wanted with Vokos and we tell him. He recommends speaking with the owner of this establishment, Janos Vamaros. We ask where we can find him but are told he is likely on his way now. We wait. Meanwhile, Pike moves down the street to try and spot Vokos. He can see and hear him as he is walking away with his friends. Pike begins to follow them. After about 20 minutes, a powerful looking Rhennee comes in. He is not wearing armor but has a ring on. He announces himself upon entering as Janos Vamaros. He looks angry and begins looking around, appearing relieved that there has been no fight or damage. He approaches One-eye and is directed to us. Gonoan offers to buy him a drink. He asks what we wanted with Vokos and we tell him. We assure him that we are not after him or Vokos only the information. He recommends we drop it but we counter with that we are acting on orders from Tenser. He then asks for a day or so to find what we want. We agree and finish our drinks. Pike follows Vokos to the barge folk residential area. He enters a building marked “palms read” and his friends leave and head back. Pike sneaks up to the window and peaks in. He is unable to see anyone. He climbs up to the second floor window and peaks in. He sees an older Rhennee woman looking out the window on the other side of the room. He can hear talking which must be from downstairs. He sneaks in the window without disturbing her and can hear the talk clearly. Someone is being berated for coming in when he has no money and trying to find about being followed or whatever. Pike exits the window and waits. Vokos exits, looks around and then heads out. Pike climbs down and returns to the bar. The party heads home where we compare notes and Pike lets the rest of us know that he swiped the ruby skull from grandfather magic. Sanna starts studying the skull, believes it to be an artifact of some sort but can’t get any actual information. She is pretty sure that grandfather magic could find it if he wanted to. The next day Obregon and Gonoan head to Halls Alchemy to warn him of possible repercussions from Vokos. They also pick up some potions and put in an order which will be ready in 2 days. Sanna heads to the school and researches the ruby skull. She learns that an obsidian key is needed to use with it. Beltin and Pike go out to pick up their gear and stop by the Green Dragon Inn to let Rikard know we are expecting a message. Once the group has reassembled, we split up again. Gonoan heads to the Green dragon to drink. He overhears someone talking to Rikard about real estate and waiting on a client to sell some property to someone else. Eventually, Rikard comes over to chat and lets Gonoan know that Janos is an upstanding fellow. Sanna, Beltin, Elaine and Pike head to the mages guild to look for Tenser. We are in put in a room to wait and when Tenser comes in we relate what we have found. He tells us to not involve anyone else and asks what we would do if Vokos would not give up the information. We are unsure how we would proceed without stepping over the law and he has no advice that wouldn’t also cross the line. He does recommend using others to look at this from other angles. We toss around the idea of using the flask shards to trace him. Then Pike asks about the skull and shows it to him. He summons a floating disk and has Pike place the skull on it to examine. He believes it contains a mini universe. It may work with different keys not just the one we know about. He recommends the priests of Zagyg to help recharge the Zagygs key we have. Pike randomly pulls out the statue of Boccob which appears to have grown larger. Tenser tells us to put our toys away as there are rooms designed for checking out such. Sanna, Pike and Elaine head to a testing room while Beltin goes to the Silver Garter to visit his female friend. As they are examining the statue, Pike tries putting his ring on the statues hand but nothing happens. He then attempts to use it blindly but nothing happens then either. Sanna casts detect magic on the statue and discovers it is not magical. Pike attempts to use the skull blindly but nothing happens. Pike goes over both with a fine toothed comb and finds nothing of interest. Sanna is pretty sure that the ring from the statue is actually green not copper. It also appears to be over 100 years old. She then pulls out her Zagygs key and examines it, believing it to go somewhere in the war tower, possibly to the area on the upper floor that we were never able to access. Sanna then looks up how to fight an iron golem just in case. We get together to plan our next visit the war tower.

Patchwall 3, cy597

We try to decide what our next step should be. We head to Eritae’s group and let her know about the golem and the effects of the curse on the bridge. She is appreciative for the information and seems determined to obtain access to the keep. Pike wants to know why and she references information we have brought back and that they want to track down what the priests of Iuz are up to. We talk with her about how to get her forces over the bridge and have trouble coming up with a good plan. Eritae will see if she can cancel out the curse on the bridge. She heads there with a group of clerics, a couple of their dogs and the scouts. We follow to see if we can help. She does some divinations and is able to make the passage easier for her people and crosses herself with no issues. We follow her across. As soon as Eritae gets to the entryway to the courtyard, she can hear the golem moving around. She grabs the body of one of her dead scouts and begins to move towards the tower of war. Beltin yells “where are you going” and she says that she is trying to distract it so we can get across. Gonoan starts to cross the courtyard towards the tower of magic. Nat follows after him. The golem moves in to view but is still a ways away. Sanna and Pike head towards the tower of magic also. Eritae continues to try and get the golems attention while Obregon and Beltin join the rest of the party. Gonoan and Nat move to the edge of the courtyard. The golem begins to move towards Eritae who immediately moves away. We all manage to make it to the tower of magic side. We notice that the kobolds have dug fortifications around the tower. Sanna raises her arms to indicate that we are not enemies while Nat makes himself visible. He moves up and presents his holy symbol. He spots several traps set up including a couple of ballistae. Sanna and Nat move up and he asks if adventurers are allowed in the tower. A kobold leader tells him to identify himself and Nat says he is a cleric of Kirtlmac, showing his magic symbol. They give him appropriate obeisance . He asks if we can go in and they say he must speak with grandfather magic, there is a prophecy involved. The kobolds demand gems and magic if they allow us passage. They cannot actually gain entrance themselves but direct us to grandfather magic. There are a couple of small pyramids on the other side of the tower and nearby is a well appointed male cleric with several low level acolytes. He is dressed very eccentrically. The aides notice us and attempt to point us out to him but he seems to not pay us any attention. Sanna says hail father magic, “GRANDFATHER magic who are you”? Sanna Eda, can we enter the tower? NO, my gods warned me that intruders would come soon with nefarious intentions. Sanna assures him that we have no nefarious intentions. He is pleased to hear that and would like us to defend the tower. We agree and he says that when the nefarious forces are defeated the tower will be reopened. We ask when will they arrive? “Have you ever had a prophecy? They are quite vague”. Nefarious forces will mess with or damage the tower. Until they are taken care of, the tower stays closed to protect it. Beltin convinces him that we have defeated the nefarious general and we need to make sure nothing else has been stolen from the tower. The grandfather demands some proof. He then pulls out a ruby skull and says that if we had the key to it, he would let us in even if we were nefarious. Sanna pulls out the zagyg key he has. The grandfather says he sees no key and the key has vanished from her hand. She gets upset and he explains that it knows him. It is still there but in an extradimensional space. It then reappears but it is not the right key. Obregon offers the dragon talon from the arena as proof that we defeated the general. Grandfather speaks to one of his aides who rushes off. We wonder if we should steal the key after all. He asks if we know where the key is? Obregon asks what that information would be worth? Could we get access in exchange? We are told that the key is needed. He puts the skull away and Pike picks his pocket, stealing the skull. We make our good byes and walk away. Nat believes the nefarious person that needs to be defeated is the voice we heard through the crystal skull in the generals quarters. We look for Eritae at the courtyard but can’t see her. Her scouts yell out that she should be coming back soon. We wait and she returns a few minutes later. She offers to cover for us as we cross back to the bridge. She counsels us to not enter the tower of power. Obregon asks why they came if they aren’t going in. She says they were going to but now won’t since we warned them of the golem. Their goal was to preemptively stop the creatures gathering to attack Greyhawk. We recross the courtyard and easily evade the golem. After getting across the bridge, we head back to town. After returning, Sanna and Beltin go to the wizards guild to attept to gain access to the key. Sanna tells them that we have become aware of a plot to break in to the guild. They take us in to a secret room with a few mages and a couple of dwarves. We lay out the plan for them. We do not give up any names, Beltin bluffs them that it was all anonymous. Sanna is told that now we have to talk to someone higher up who may demand more information. The dwarves stay in the room and we hear noise that seems to indicate someone or something else is in here too. After waiting about half an hour, Tenser enters the room. He greets Sanna. We tell him about what we were supposed to get and why we need the key. Tenser thinks we may be being manipulated. We agree that that is possible. Maybe grandfather can’t get in and wants us to do the work for him. Then he wants to know who Beltin is. Beltin introduces himself. Tenser asks more questions of Sanna but doesn’t seem to believe her story completely and is disappointed in her. He won’t confirm or deny the existence of the room, the key or the gold monkey. He is grateful for the warning but feels we don’t have a good reason for wanting the key. Beltin says that we just want to borrow the key to get in the tower of magic. Tenser says if it does exist, it likely is not to be touched. He asks is he can do some checking and we agree. We tell him about what we have heard concerning white plume mountain and lawrus racknian. He warns us of legacy magic items locatied therein. Lawrus may be interested in them especially black razor, a negative magic item. He wants us to go to the church of boccob and look into the desecration of Rigby’s body and we agree to do so. He assures us that he has no hard feelings and looks forward to seeing Sanna again at the green dragon inn. He leaves. We return to the rest of the party and fill them in. Some of the party heads to the church of Boccob. Reann greets Sanna, asking if she remembers her. Sanna says yes and tells her that Tenser sent us to investigate the desecration of Rigby. She tells us that it happened while viewings were going on and it was busy at the time. Someone tossed a flask of acid at him but somehow got away. They yelled something about the old ones revenge being at hand. She has heard of Rigby battling Iuz at some point. She takes us over and shows us several shards of blue glass that was from the flask. Pike examines it and can tell it was thrown from a great distance, that there is a makers mark on one of the shards and from the direction of the spray where it likely was thrown from. He is unsure what makers mark it is but Reann gets us some paper to copy it down on. After assembling the party, we take it to the green dragon inn to ask Rikard about it. He welcomes us and asks what we have been up to. We show him the mark and he believes it was made for Halls alchemy. He provides directions. We go there and find a portly mustachioed gentleman. He seems clumsy and barely fits behind his desk. He welcomes us and asks what he can get us. We show him the mark and he says he uses them. We tell him why we are asking and he wants to know a little about us so he knows we are not unsavory. He says we are lucky as he normally sells acid in green flasks but had ran out a week ago. He checks his records to see who may have bought acid since then. It was sold to Gulfor Leeds at the Lor of the Lake. Also, a half orc mercenary from Pomerjer and one of the barge folk who is regularly around the area named Vokos. We head out to find Vokos first at the Low seas tavern. We find a Rhennee thug at a table with a number of empty tankards in front of him who must be Vokos. Pike approaches and asks to buy him a drink and asks to have his fortune told. This offends him but he tells Pike to get himself some drinks. Pike starts to push him about the acid he bought but the Rhennee seems confused. He claims he bought it for a client but doesn’t know any details. Pike loudly says that this is about someone desecrating one of Greyhawks most beloved heroes. The other patrons begin to look at us. Vokos says he doesn’t know anything, he just delivered stuff for a client. A couple of us notice 3 suspicious people leaving and Gonoan steps outside to try and see where they went. He sees 2 of them but they headed in 2 different directions. They are both male, one of whom is another of the Rhennee. Obregon feels that Vokos is just a drunk and doesn’t know anything of value. We tell him that telling us who he delivered the acid to would clear his name of any crime. The other bar patrons start to get aggravated and question what we are doing. Obregon’s bow appears in his hand; is that a bar brawl brewing?

We arrive at Kellicks and are shown to a sitting room. Pike takes the head chair. After a couple of minutes, Kellick appears in full regalia. He asks what we need, aren’t we supposed to be helping Tiira? We let him know that we declined her job request. Pike asks if he can help locate someone, his boss with the thieves guild who has been missing. Kellick says that is generally unethical as people are entitled to their privacy. He does say it can be done, its not his specialty, but he knows people who could. He asks the rest of us what we think about it, but we were not really aware that he was worried. Kellick then wants to know why we came if not for that and we tell him about the hunt for the aurumvoraxes. He is irritated that Pike shared this with us as he was supposed to do it on his own as our group will attract attention. Sanna shares our tale to illustrate how we are always being watched anyway. He takes notes and will do some research on our behalf. He asks for us to locate Lawrus Racknian in return. We let him know that evidence suggests that he was the one who took the creatures. He reminds us that when he became a death knight he mentioned Caius which may be a good place to start. We split up to research Caius. Sanna heads to the Mage’s guild and meets with his contact. He lets him know about meeting with Kellick and what we were asked to do. He asks about Caius and learns that he is an elder god and predates most of the more modern gods. He was a human before attaining godhood. He was a priest of Nerul and sacrificed his followers to attain godhood. When he performed his ritual, something went wrong and he was trapped in the very obelisk that he used to channel his powers. Nerull did not want to be challenged and caused a flaw in the ceremony. Even trapped, he attracted some powerful followers including a red dragon turned dracolich named Dragotha. Dragotha is rumored to lair near white plume mountain. Caius is likely also responsible for the giant worm that erupted in to the arena. A map of the area around White Plume mountain would be helpful. Gonoan heads to the Green Dragon to drink. He keeps his ears open and hears about an attack against Rigby’s body. Also, that some of the St Cuthbertians left Greyhawk and were followed by some Boccobians who wanted to make sure they didn’t do anything precipitous. Beltin, Obregon, and Pike head to the church of St Cuthbert and ask for Eritae. We are told she is indisposed and unavailable today. We ask about Caius anyway and are told that they haven’t seen the worms or spawn of Caius in probably 10 years. We mention that Lawrus had exhorted about him when he became the death knight. “lo, the apostle of Caius is amongst us” Was he speaking of himself or the worm? There was a chamber under the arena that the worm was gestating in until big enough to come forth. Obregon asks about what happened to Rigby and we learn that someone threw acid at his body. After we regroup and compare notes, we decide that White Plume mountain is probably a good next step but in the meantime we follow the St Cuthbertians. They appear to be headed to the Grehawk ruins. There are some fresh graves on the way marked bandits stopped and one named burial marker. There are more bodies along the way of bandits and further on some howling orcs. Almost to the ruins, there is an encampment out of sight of the ruins themselves. There are a couple of guarded tents but the rest of the folk are out in the open. As we approach, someone alerts them and Eritae comes stomping up to us and asks why we are there. We tell her we wanted to see if we can help. She says they have encountered an issue, a curse on the pathway to the ruins. Crossing the bridge has proved difficult. She asks if we could lead some of the evil forces out for them to deal with. We discuss what to do next and Nat offers to speak with the kobolds and pretend to be the party leader. Pike ROFLs and Nat then suggests that Pike try to cross the bridge since he had done it alone previously to which Pike retorts that Nat should go. So Nat turns himself invisible and heads off. He comes back and says that he is ok. It may be difficult but we should be able to cross. It takes some time but we manage to make the crossing. We notice something moving around beyond the wall and Obregon determines it is something heavy. Pike and Obregon attempt to move up to the crumbling outer wall silently but don’t see anything right away. There does seem to be a shadow moving around and finally we spot it, the iron golem. Beltin moves back a little to lead it across the bridge, Pike moves up a little and hits it with a crossbow bolt which just bounces off. Sanna steps in front of Gonoan and hits it with a lightning ball which doesn’t appear to have any effect. Gonoan moves back and Obregon shoots 2 arrows at it but misses. The golem moves forward but seems to be sluggish. Beltin moves back again as does Pike. Sanna backs up on to the bridge while Gonoan stays at the end of the bridge to cover the others escape. Obregon hits it with an arrow and causes a little damage. The golem moves forward a little more. Beltin and Sanna keep moving away as does Pike. Gonoan is unable to move on to the bridge, as he succumbs to the curse which also happens to Obregon after he hits it with another arrow. The golem moves forward again and now seems to be faster. Beltin holds his ground to keep watch on the ones on the ground and Sanna moves back up in case she is needed. Gonoan and Obregon get up and move back. The golem moves to the edge of the wall but then stops. It appears it will not move beyond the wall. Beltin moves up and hits it with acid. Pike gets up and moves back. Sanna casts black tentacles around the golem but it fails to grab hold. Gonoan moves up behind Beltin while Obregon misses it with 2 arrows. The golem moves back to try and get out of the tentacles. Now what?

We head to the Green Dragon Inn to return the sword of Chaos to Rikard. It is busy and full of river folk. We hear rumbles about the ruins and adventurers who returned with treasure and a dead dragon, apparently we are being noticed. We hear someone say that once Zagyg held 9 lesser demigods captive in Zagyg’s tower and only Iuz escaped. Obregon pauses to listen some more and hears that a demigod is not as powerful as a full god. If only Iuz escaped then there must be 8 still trapped. That does not seem possible but how many favors could you get if you rescued a god? We move to the bar and the place goes quiet as a dashing dark haired man with fancy wizard clothes enters. Sanna realizes that this is Tenser, an archmage and moves to meet with him. Rikard notices us and says hello. We ask for a moment in private and we all move off to the side. We tell him we have his sword and return it to him. He replaces the sword on his hip with the blade of chaos and looks like he is whole again. He offers us free drinks but we decline as we have an appointment. He is disappointed. Meanwhile, Sanna walks up to Tenser as he asks to join the Lord’s table. A game of wizards chess is going on at the table but he doesn’t appear to be paying attention. She asks why he is here? He is here for entertainment and wants to know something about Sanna. She stammers and tells him the basics of her past. She notices he is staring off and there is a mysterious figure on the far side of the room; A man with bushy blond hair and a military coat who appears to be staring at Tenser. Tenser removes a small object wrapped in an azure handkerchief and places it on the table. It gets knocked over and he rises to leave. He says he would enjoy speaking with her more later and exits the building rather abruptly. The blond man moves next to the table and picks up the object, places it in his pocket and returns to where he was. We make our apologies to Rikard, promise to return and share our adventures, and head to meet Tiira. Back at Kellicks manor, we find Pike being shown around. Kellick tells him that he has been left behind because Tiira doesn’t want a member of the thieves guild associated with her mission. She is wanting the party to deal with something that the guild is prohibited from being involved in directly. He then says that he has news concerning Lawrus. Some of his assets have come in to the possession of other parties. He had a number of exotic creatures for use in the arena. He had 2 golden creatures that are now owned by Henway who has a menagerie. Not long after they arrived at the menagerie, they went missing. Finding them could help shed light on Lawrus’s nefariousness and Kellick would like to know what happened to them. They are arumvoraxis, golden legged creatures. Magic was likely used in the theft. As they tour the manor, Pike notices a secret door, gets the feeling that there is another creature moving around and a ring that Kellick is wearing seems to be a signet but nonmagical ring. Pike makes his way out and heads home. Tiira meets us part of the way and leads us off towards the old city. We go to a rundown apartment where Tiira pulls a yellow glass bottle and a plain green metal ring wrapped in a red silk cloth. The guild has learned of our exploits in the ruins and that we are likely looking for access into the tower of magic. Getting in requires dealing with grandfather magic and then you need the key. I know where the key is and if you get an item that the guild needs we will get the you to it. 200 years ago Zagyg founded the guild of magic and created the ziggurat with sealed rooms at the top. The key is in the rooms but you can’t just walk in. Fortunately we know a secret entrance. They will help us get the key in exchange for a small service. There is a bronze statue of a monkey that is desired by a patron which is also in the sealed study. We are reluctant but she expresses disappointment if we don’t. While we are debating she tells us we are independent operators that do not report to her but we must follow instructions. The secret entrance was found by a mention in a book in the special collections room. She can help us get to the room where we need to find the book and figure out where the entrance is. The little yellow bottle is ancient and when the wearer of the ring twists it he and all who are touching it are transported into an interdimensional space in the bottle. After doing so, a member of the guild will get us in to the special collections room. After 12 hours, twist the ring again and we will reappear. 12 hours later reverse the process to get out. Return tomorrow if you are interested and remember to not tell Pike what is going on. We ask for cash payment but she can’t offer that. She can offer Naribo’s hand which is a powerful and intelligent sword. She does send us to Nulligan who may be able to get us magic items that are hard to find. We head back to the house to meet Pike and decide to decline the thieves guild job. We share stories. We head back to the Green Dragon Inn where we see Tenser and Kellick playing wizard chess. Sanna joins them and watches the game. The rest of us move to the bar and speak with Rikard. The blond man is also at the bar. He interrupts our tale with a couple questions and earns a flat stare from Beltin. Rikard introduces the blond as Captain Gallancz, the owner of the inn. They begin to speak about battles they were involved in near the temple of elemental evil. It seems that Gallancz has seen things in the ruins and may have been in all 3 towers. We do obliquely ask Rikard for a reward for the return of his sword. He says he needs to talk to the Captain about it. Captain appears particularly interested in the infernal dragon though we defeated it too quickly to make it a good tale. Rikard asks what we would value besides coin. We mention magic, favors and information. He points out a group that he believes may have been in the tower of magic recently. We ask them about getting in and they were there 6 days ago. There was a crazy elf inside a cathedral to Boccob, then went down and ran in to a bunch of traps through a maze. That led in to a level full of dead monsters so they left. We ask Rikard about locating magic items for sale. He directs us to Nulligans, Halls Apothecary, and Kellicks tower. The next morning we set about selling our treasure and in the process we hear that someone had tried to deface Rigby’s body. We go by Nulligans Trove looking for some items. He is a balding male that looks to be a wizard of some sort. He doesn’t have what we are looking for but can get it in a couple of days. We place a couple of orders and then go to Henways estate to begin investigating the disappearance of the golden creatures. Pike introduces us at the door and someone goes to fetch Henway. He is an eccentric old man and wonders what we have caught. We tell him we are trying to find his missing creatures and he says they were stolen not missing and wonders what we have found. We explain we want to see where they were stolen from and look for clues. He leads us through the menagerie and past some very exotic creatures. We finally reach an empty enclosure that the Arumvoraxes were kept in. We ask questions about the creatures, access to their enclosure and how someone could have gotten them out. Obregon applies his tracking skills and discovers that the plants here have withered to a certain degree and not from natural causes. Something must have flown down to get them due to the disturbance of the flora. A death knight on a nightmare would account for both of these. Nothing else of note happened around the same time as the theft. We go to check in with Kellick and seek some advice.

We continue to move towards the exit finding the major doors spiked open. To be cantankerous, we remove the spikes as we go. The secret door in the troll lair is closed, however and when Pike opens it, we see 3 Tyrones (the demonic bird) on the stairs in our way. Beltin moves in and breathes acid causing 2 of them to vanish as they were only illusions. Gonoan moves up and hits the real Tyrone but fails to penetrate. Pike follows suit but misses. Sanna joins the fray and hits it with a hand full of magic missiles. It puts out more spores which hit Pike and Gonoan, then says “I’ve got to get the iron golem” and vanishes. Vines start growing out of them both but we are able to mitigate most of the damage. We start running up the stairs and after a couple of levels, Tyrone appears above us again, saying “Come here”. Obregon hits him with an arrow, Beltin spits acid for no damage and Gonoan takes a small piece out of his hide. Pike moves in to position for his deadeye shot while Sanna hits him with yet more magic missiles. Once more, he vanishes. We reach the top of the stairs and begin moving the rocks out of the way. When we break through, we can see Tyrone through the hole. Obregon puts an arrow in him but it is only an illusion which vanishes. We keep moving rock until we can get through but find Tyrone has vanished again. We make our way out, stopping to settle with the tower wardens. They take over 453 gp from us. Once we are on the road, we notice Tyrone flying above us. Obregon shoots at it, hitting 3 times and it suddenly plummets from the sky. We move to where he lies and Obregon cuts off a claw and Beltin plucks a handful of feathers. Pike takes its head as well. We arrive back at Greyhawk and split up. Sanna, Gonoan, Pike and Nat head to the mage’s guild with the dragon carcass while the others head to the church of St Cuthbert. Upon arrival at the mage’s guild, Sanna shares our experiences with her contact attempting to stress the upcoming threat. Pike also tries to make this a big deal but the mages guild is not overly concerned. We sell the dragon to the guild for 12000 gp. Pike attempts to trade the Vrock head for a ring but they only offer 2000 gp. We take them up on that. Meanwhile, at the church of St Cuthbert, we ask for Eritae. Once we meet her, we relate our story. She is curious if the ease of our time was a ruse and who the other master is. She tells us that the city is planning an attack on the forces of Iuz within the ruins but didn’t want to unless they were able to actually get them. She asks what we need and we ask for advice on defeating summoned creatures and golems. She recommends items that cause rust. We head home and Sanna identifies our magic items. Pike and Obregon head to the thieves guild house to check in. Tiira send him to Kellicks tower. Pike tells Obregon if things go sideways to run back to get the rest of the group. Upon arrival, the portcullis opens and we move down a hallway lined with murder holes to a sitting room where we are seated at the table. Kellick comes in and sits at the head of the table. He introduces himself and mentions he is a master of dragon chess. He thanks us for helping with the wight problem. He finds it interesting that we have survived several visits to the ruins. He believes we may have earned a place among them but he needs to know more about us. We notice unusual objects around the room. He is a collector and sometimes seller of exotic goods and could use more people to help him obtain such objects. He wonders if we have anything of interest after our numerous visits. We prevaricate and stall, not wanting to share the specifics. Tiira arrives after a while and wants to know what has been going on. She is more interested in the party than just Pike as she may have a job for us. Pike shares our adventures with them both. She wants to meet with the rest of the party at another location but wants Pike to stay with Kellick for now. She recommends returning the sword of chaos to Rikard as he is a good ally and we should keep on his good side. Obregon returns to the party, and relays the message to us. We sell our loot off and earn 12,752 gp, 4 sp and 7 cp each.

Pike searches the throne but finds nothing. We move through the door behind it and go down some stairs to a 4way junction. Straight ahead ends in rubble, to the left is a door and to the right is a long room with 2 tables and a large book case. Pike listens at the door and hears a voice in common relating the disaster in the arena to the “master”. Pike opens the door and sees a goblin sitting at a desk speaking to a glowing crystal skull. It squeaks “Master they are here, save me”. Pike hits it with a crossbow bolt, killing it instantly. Beltin grabs a woven rug off the floor and tosses it over the skull. Gonoan moves in to the large room and notices the bookcase is full of books about Greyhawk, more such books are out on the tables along with a large map. Pike searches the goblin and finds nothing. A voice comes from the skull requesting to know who ruined “my” plans. Beltin begins speaking with it but it hears Pike rifling through the drawers. It warns us to stop searching or he will kill us here instead of later. Gonoan says he is going to destroy it and it spontaneously shatters. The bird-like creature that had decapitated our prisoners on our last trip to Greyhawk appears. Pike dives behind the desk and Beltin hits it with a line of acid. Obregon hits it with 3 arrows. Sanna casts magic missile but it fails to penetrate. Gonoan smashes it with his axe 3 times while the creature flexes it wings and spores fly out of it dealing damage to Beltin, Gonoan and Sanna. It introduces itself as Tyrone and proceeds to beat up on Sanna, knocking her unconscious. It hits Gonoan a couple of times a well. Pike lines up a shot, Beltin hits it once but does no damage. Obregon plants 4 more arrows in it while Nat heals Sanna. Gonoan hits it and Pike puts a bolt in its throat. Gonoan hits it again and it vanishes. The spores begin growing out of our skin. Nat thinks he needs to use a med kit to counteract them. After further examination, he determines that poison control or holy water is needed. After a short while the spores stop growing though we are covered in tiny vines. We focus on healing while Obregon and Pike start looking in to the other rooms. The first is a bedroom with a chest at the foot of the bed. Pike checks for traps but finds none. He tries the keys we found on the general and one fits. Inside is a stack of letters which he hands to Obregon, along with a pouch with 45 platinum pieces and 2 rubies. The rest of the room is empty of items of interest. The next room is a dirty mess with the smell of goblin in it. The next has casks and crates in it. They contain 2 casks of wine, a cask from the shield lands, a box of nice military uniforms, and a crate of dried food stuffs. Beltin and Sana begin wandering the rooms with the detect secret doors wand while the rest of the group searches the room with the bookcase. The map laying on the table is of greyhawk with several areas on the west wall marked with ink. We move to the arena exit which the dragon came out of; it leads in to a cavernous chamber filled with a foul stench with a mound of bones and treasures on one side. Pike and Obregon begin digging through it and find 28 pp, 324 gp, 128 sp, 37 cp, a withered hand on a chain, composite short bow, and a pearl. We move through the other open gate and find 4 cells. One of which is occupied by a human male. His name is Fidd and was adventuring in the upper levels. His party was attacked by orcs and the rest of his group was either killed then or in the arena. He claims to be a note taker. We open his cell and give him food and drink. He points to another cell where his companions gear is stored but we find it is empty. He is disappointed that his gear is missing. Obregon is reading through the letters from the chest and they are lists of supplies to go to the tower of magic, instructions for surface raids, and the timeline for attacks. The dates indicate an attack in the next couple of weeks. We decide to head back with Fidd to report on this information as soon as possible. As we move back through the levels, Obregon notices a possible ambush in the room with the large crevasse. Obregon and Pike move up to check it out, using all of the stealth at their disposal. There is a large iron golem in the room and we decide to head the other way, our goal being to get out. Will we reach the relative safety of Greyhawk in time?